Suicide bomber. It’s an awful combination of words to consider. First, one conscientiously decides to put an end to his or her own life, ignoring all aspirations for the future, rejecting any relationship or respect one has earned, and denying ones own instinct for self-preservation.
Take the scenario a step further. Instead of simply executing ones self, he or she formulates a plan to murder as many other humans as possible. With dynamite tied around the waist, one enters a bus station or busy market; any place unsuspecting people are simply shopping or riding to work. Or, packing the car with explosives a person drives into a hotel or business, demolishing a day care or slaughtering sleeping guests.
Some claim the problem is irrelevant, using statements like, “The bombers are only in the Middle East, the UK, or somewhere far away!” Too quickly we forget that in 1993 two of our own American sons bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including seventeen babies and children in the nursery.
No one today escapes a suicide bomber’s influence. Every time we board an airplane, use a credit card, or even call on a phone we’re being observed for evidence of terrorism in action. We are aware the terrorists may already be in our midst, unsuspected until they strike, like the seemingly innocent youths in London before their attack on the subways this summer.
Why do humans become suicide bombers? This is not just an academic question. If we could identify the motives behind their devastating deeds perhaps we could also find hope for stopping the forces that drive them. We might also curb the often irrational frenzy surrounding their identification and capture.
Suicide bombing is an extreme demonstration of one of human nature’s strongest forces: devotion. Humans are most fulfilled and most driven when they live for a purpose greater than themselves. There is something immensely powerful about a higher calling or sense of duty that causes people to abandon self-interest and risk everything to complete a mission. This is why soldiers willingly die while serving their country, why parents readily sacrifice for their children’s future… and why terrorists blow themselves up.
In my personal experience, the power of devotion is no more clearly illustrated than in the world of medical missions. Fifteen years ago Scott Armistead declined a promising political career in Virginia to pursue a cause for which he would repeatedly place his life in peril, test his meld to the extreme, and receive no financial reward. Scott became a medical missionary to the Middle East. Scott lives in Pakistan, daily caring for impoverished people whom the world has rejected. His reward? The deep satisfaction of following the call upon his life.
What is Scott’s inspiration? He would tell you it derives from being a follower of Jesus. Devotion to the Great Physician compels people to deny themselves and serve one another. Consider Jesus’ teaching: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-44). One who dwells on such truth simply must put it into action.
Most of us all would applaud Scott’s devotion. We may even feel a little envious that he possesses a vision for which he’s willing to sacrifice greatly. We wish that we, too, felt so compelled by an ideal that we would surrender life’s passing vanities.
But devotion alone has a dark side. Just as devotion can save human lives, it can also destroy them. As it can bring out the very best in men and women, devotion can also unleash ones most savage nature. We must consciously and critically consider the causes for which we are willing to die: even more significantly, those causes for which we are willing to truly live. Choose correctly, and we enter a path leading towards deep satisfaction; even joy. But devote ourselves to just any alluring teacher or cause, and we set ourselves up for disappointment, or much worse.
It’s a risky business; choosing one’s devotion. But devote ourselves we must, for a life without devotion is also a life without conviction, passion or meaning. To whom are you devoted? For what cause are you willing to die? For what cause are your dedicated to live? Within these questions lie an opportunity to better understand your values. Within your answers lay your best opportunity to take advantage of one of life’s powerful qualities: devotion.