The root meaning of the word “martyr” is “witness.” The implication is that when people die for what they believe, they have said something important that we need to hear.

In a strange way, believing that there are values greater than our own life and coming to terms with our impending death helps us live. It is okay to be afraid of dying, but we should be even more frightened by an incomplete life.

Our day-to-day decisions are not likely to lead to martyrdom, but each day we have to decide if we will give away our time and attention. Giving our lives away may mean: turning the other cheek; sitting in a home where someone has died; shopping for someone else’s groceries; baking cookies that we won’t eat; reading stories to someone else’s children; taking flowers to someone who’s not our type; visiting someone else’s mother in the nursing home; watering someone else’s plants; washing dishes we didn’t dirty; discussing current events that don’t interest us; sending cards when we don’t know what to write; talking about faith when we would rather be silent; doing good for people who will do no good to us in return; weeping when others weep; discovering that if there is nothing for which we would die, then we do not have enough for which to live.