The motto of the old U.S. Life-Saving Service — the forerunner of today’s Coast Guard — hung over the door of every rescue hut on the beaches of the Outer Banks: “You have to go out. You don’t have to come back.” Some duties outrank the preservation of one’s own life, as the soldiers who waded onto the beaches of Normandy knew, and as a young Jewish queen named Esther knew when she staked everything on the words, “If I perish, I perish.” Decide what you’ll die for, because until you have an answer, your life has no meaning.
Scripture: Esther 4:15-17, Matthew 16:25
