British stockbroker and humanitarian, Sir Nicholas Winton
My friend Stan Key has written a book to be published soon. The book title is “One Life”. I sure like the title.
I immediately remembered a recent movie with the same title, “One Life”, which tells the story of Nicholas “Nicky” Winton, a young London stockbroker who rescued hundreds of Jewish children from Prague in 1939 before the Nazi occupation. Nicky and this team saved 669 children, but was haunted by those he couldn't save.
The point of the movie title seemed to be multifaceted. Nicky’s “one life” has made a difference on this earth. And then, “one life” saved was worth it. You remember the oft-told starfish story: “I saved that one.”
The film depicts an older Nicky, played by Anthony Hopkins, as he was reunited, fifty years later, with many of the children he had saved. The “one had become a thousand”, as the prophet Isaiah reminds us. Nicky became “Sir” Nicholas Winton when the Queen heard the story of those 669 children adopted by benevolent English families. There were many heroes in this amazing story. Nicky was not alone in his heroism.
But for most of us, our ‘one life’ goes unseen. No one seems to notice. No one seems to care. One is indeed the loneliest number, so the song says. We do things (even write books and tell stories on websites like this) hoping someone will notice.
And so, hopefully someone will notice Stan Key’s latest book. The theologian side of Stan wants to say important things about the Oneness of God and how the Trinity fits into our understanding of God. Find the book on Amazon when it comes out to know more. You will see why Stan is my favorite living non-famous preacher!
But the reason the title “One Life” gets my attention is simpler than the important theology of Stan’s book.
There is an urgency to the fact that I am seventy-four (74). Time is short. I don’t have time to get it wrong anymore. My one life is almost gone. Has it mattered? Is there time to flip the script and make it matter at the end? Colonel Sanders didn’t seem to matter until he was over 70, and now he has the most famous face on earth. Is it too late for me to make a mark?
My ‘one life’ is winding down.
I am a golfer, and my ‘one life’ is on the 16th fairway. It feels like I need to par the last three holes to win.
I am a football fan, and I think I just heard the ‘two-minute warning’. It feels like I need to make sure we have called the right play.
I am from Kentucky so I can hear the racetrack announcer screaming at the Derby, “And down the stretch they come!!” It feels like my horse is in the middle of the pack.
Perhaps you are thinking the same. Your ‘one life’ is almost gone. Has it mattered?
John the Apostle helps us understand. He was chosen at a very young age to spend three years with the Man whose “One Life” changed everything for all of mankind. Decades later, when John was even older than me, he testified to the truth he had experienced:
“We proclaim to you the ONE who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This ONE who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the ONE who is eternal life.” First John 1:1-2, New Living Translation.
Of course, this ONE LIFE was Jesus Christ, who famously said, “Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.” John 12:25, NLT.
The paradox of losing your “one life” to somehow gain eternal freedom continues to baffle all of us. But Jesus backed up those words with the Easter story of suffering and death and resurrection.
And I promise you, when you find this One, you become sensitive to the lost ones around you who need that same life that you have found. Jesus said plainly, “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4).
One lost sheep. Could that be you? You’ve lost your way. You’ve lost your purpose. Your ‘one life’ has not worked out like you planned?
Or maybe you’re sure of heaven. This ONE LIFE, Jesus Himself, has rescued you long ago. But now, there is someone out there who is lost. Just one. Perhaps it is not too late to leave the ninety-nine and find the one lost sheep. One Life. That is all we get. How will it end?
P.S.. To meet the real Nicky Winton, click on six-minute video.