A Different Kind of Martyrdom

Wikipedia says: A martyr (Greek: μάρτυς, mártys, "witness"; stem μάρτυρ-, mártyr-) is somebody who suffers persecution and death for the people, a country or an organization, or refusing to renounce a belief, usually religious, political or rights.

I once heard about Celtic Christianity's definition of martyrdom from one of the adjunct professors at Wheaton. They recognized three different kinds of martyrdom, organized by color:

Green: Staying home and living one's life in total subjection to Christ (not a bad way to 'go', eh?). This often took the form of joining a monastic group, with strict observances.
Red: Dying for your faith. This could take various forms, but the color makes it obvious.
White (and according to some, the 'highest' martyrdom): leaving home and country through love of Christ and others.

If you look carefully you'll notice that only one of the three involves leaving the earth 'unnaturally'. The implications of that are pretty profound. YOU could be a martyr. Today. Tomorrow. It's basically the choice to live a Romans 12:1-2 life right where you are, to BE a living sacrifice. What a great tension in those two words. Think about it. LIVING - - SACRIFICE.

I'm only one small sliver Scotch-Irish, but I'd like to add one more to the Celts list:
Brown: Continually receiving in your body the Sufferings of Christ due to location and unnatural environmental factors. This is a sloow slooooooow sloooooooooow death, and may even appear 'natural'.

Whether through ignorance, willful neglect or malice the environment (both natural and man-made products) is a serious serious problem in China. We hear in the news about algae blooms that threaten beautiful lakes and rivers, melamine tainted milk, dust storms in the NE caused by desertification which, in turn, is caused by the unchecked felling of whole forests, the utter unsuitability of the water in the last 1/3 of the Yellow River before it reaches the Beihai Sea--if it makes it there at all, air pollution in every major city, and the list could go on.

To add to the already known issues is the whole host of unaccounted for and unreported issues. Things like the smell of burning plastic in your apartment in the morning, the ever-present dust that builds up in large quantities within days, garbage dumping in pretty much ALL rural areas, industrial waste that is secretly (or not) disposed of, and on and on.

You may ask, "Why would anyone chose that?" It's for the sake of His name. There's certainly nothing glorious about it. You definitely won't be anointed a 'saint' by the Holy See in Rome, and Michelangelo won't be enshrining you in oil on the plaster ceiling of a very cool building. But that's not the reward. There are far greater rewards than that.

For example, hearing "Well done, good and faithful (if not a bit dirty) servant. Gabriel, get that guy a clean robe. Come, enjoy your Master's happiness."

Or, the 'crowns' that await that great Day, and the joy of casting them at His feet (see Philippians 4:1 for more details).

Cheers to Brown Martyrs.