Stepping Forward and Saying “Yes”
Author: Stan Guthrie
September 14, 2023
Ernest Gordon was a Scottish POW in the Second World War who was forced by his Japanese
captors to help construct the Burma-Siam Railway. An estimated 393 prisoners died for every
mile of track that was laid.
It wasn’t just the harsh jungle conditions and disease that took their lives. According to Gordon,
in his book Miracle on the River Kwai, sadistic guards bayonetted or decapitated those who
were suspected of loafing. The wicked, inhumane conditions put the men in survival mode.
Rather than help one another endure the unrelenting brutality, they turned inward. Pity fled. A
callous desire to look out for No. 1 prevailed. Gordon, whose weight dropped to a mere
hundred pounds during the ordeal, writes:
The weak were trampled underfoot, the sick Ignored or resented, the dead forgotten. When a
man lay dying, we had no word of mercy. When he cried for our help, we averted our heads. We
had long since resigned ourselves to being derelicts. We were forsaken men, and now, even God
had left us. Hate, for some, was the only motivation for living. We hated the Japanese. We
would willingly have torn them limb from limb, flesh from flesh, had they fallen into our hands.
At the end of a certain day, the Japanese captors were collecting tools from the prisoners. One
guard started shouting that a shovel was missing and demanded that the man who had taken it
confess. The prisoners stood still and said nothing. Enraged, the guard cocked his rife, pointing
it at the prisoners. “All die! All die!” he screamed. Gordon described what happened next:
At that moment one man stepped forward. The guard clubbed him to death with his rifle while
he stood silently to attention. When they returned to the camp, the tools were counted again
and no shovel was missing.
No one had stolen a shovel. But to save his fellow soldiers, one man chose to step forward to
save the rest. Word spread quickly in the camp—the man had sacrificed his life for them. The
result was electric, according to Gordon. Many started asking questions about death and about
God. A small church was started. Nightly prayers were offered. Gordon became the unofficial
camp chaplain.
“Death was still with us, but we were slowly being freed from its destructive grip,” Gordon
writes. “Love, heroism, self-sacrifice, sympathy, mercy, integrity and creative faith were the
essence of life, turning mere existence into living in the truest sense.”
When the victorious Allies rolled in, they stood the Japanese tormenters before their former
prisoners. Instead of attacking them, the survivors said, “No more hatred. No more killing. Now
what we need is forgiveness.”
Their world had changed and the kingdom was clearly seen in the darkest of places because
one anonymous man, like Christ, had courageously and selflessly stepped forward and said Yes.
Pastor Chris had wanted to tell this story on Sunday during his sermon, “The Christian’s Use of
Power,” but ran out of time. So I am telling it now.
One thing that Chris said that haunts me is how many people have told him that God is teaching
them to say No. Now, as he mentioned, sometimes it is right and good to say No. When twenty
percent of the people do eighty percent of the work, it is perfectly understandable to decline a
ministry opportunity, to take a break. When you are burned out or facing heavy stress in your
life, No is probably the right answer. But not always—and No should never be our default
setting. We are all gifted by God and called to use our gifts for His glory.
With our Community Chat Chili coming up this Sunday, let’s take inspiration from the
anonymous soldier and pray that God would show us how we can appropriately step forward at
far less cost and say Yes to the call to ministry. With God’s empowering grace, let’s make a
difference in this corner of God’s kingdom.
Stan Guthrie is NCC’s minister of communications.
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