Would You Save the World Even If No One Knew You Did?

Let me ask you a question:

Would you save the world even if no one knew you did?

Now, I think pretty much all of us would say yes. Not only because we honestly want to believe we would, but because we don’t want to come across as a selfish piece of crap.

But what if you were asked to give your life without all the fanfare? Not just a single act of sacrifice, but an entire lifetime of laying down your life with no one ever noticing. Would you do it?

No ticker-tape parade. No statue in your honor. No Lifetime movie or 60 Minutes special. No mention of you in history books. Not even the people you gave your life for would know what you did. Only you and God would know how much you sacrificed.

Would you still do it?

Today’s self-focused social media world presents a very real problem with this sentiment, doesn’t it? I think most of our social media feeds challenge our gut reaction to that question. The truth is, most of us can’t even go out to eat without taking a picture of our food and uploading it to Instagram. We can’t have a good or bad day without telling everyone on Facebook about it.

No one really wants to admit they are selfish. We all want to believe our social media posts are just us engaging with a community that genuinely wants to know about our daily lives—not cultural narcissism. That every one of our friends and followers is truly interested in our Wendy’s salad. That every post we make standing in solidarity with some marginalized community is changing real hearts and minds.

But is it?

Is changing your profile picture to an all-black image really solving racism in the United States? Or is it just a way for us to feel better about not actually doing anything real about the issue?

We are content with the facsimile of doing rather than the actual act of doing.

Sure, I think most of us truly do care. Most of us want to see injustice ended and evil punished. But can we really be bothered to step out of our busy, self-focused lives to honestly do something about it?

So we come back to the question:

Would you save the world even if no one knew you did?

My favorite Star Wars character is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Not just because I always got stuck playing him as a kid. My younger brother was always Han Solo, and our best friend Brandon was always Luke Skywalker, so it was either Obi-Wan, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, or one of the droids. I chose Obi-Wan, but that isn’t why I love him.

I love him because, more than any other character in Star Wars, he embodies sacrifice.

I’m not talking about when he allowed Darth Vader to kill him in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. I’m talking about the twenty years he spent on Tatooine watching over Luke. He gave up his life to protect the boy who would someday save the galaxy and redeem one of the worst men to ever live.

That is why I really don’t like the Disney+ show. It cheapens the sacrifice the character made.

He wasn’t galivanting across the galaxy making a name for himself. No—he was quietly standing vigil on an unassuming world so far from the core that it could almost be considered forgotten. He was living a life of sacrifice deep in the shadows where no one would ever see.

This is why I will always love Star Wars Rebels and Dave Filoni. There is a scene where Maul confronts Obi-Wan on Tatooine at night in the middle of a lonely desert. Maul taunts him about how far he has fallen from the powerful Jedi Master he once was.

Obi-Wan responds with the simple phrase:

“Look what I have risen above.”

Maul, like all Sith, could not understand sacrifice. The Force exists to give them power so they can take what they desire. It does not exist to give them strength to sacrifice for others.

After a bit of banter, Maul finally realizes why Obi-Wan resigned himself to a life of solitude. It wasn’t out of fear or failure, but out of duty to protect someone—the Chosen One.

Maul came for vengeance, and he meant to get it. Yet the duel lasts all of three seconds as Obi-Wan makes quick work of him.

Maul had gravely misunderstood him.

Obi-Wan was not a weak man hiding like a frightened rabbit. No, he was more powerful than he had ever been. He was a Jedi Master strengthened by duty, conviction, and sacrifice. The man who had faced and defeated Vader. The man who had evaded an entire Empire hell-bent on killing him and the person he had been tasked to protect.

At the end of the day, Obi-Wan gave up his life to protect Luke. It wasn’t just a single act, but a lifetime of vigilance in the shadows.

If he had wavered—if he had given in to the selfish desires we all struggle with and left Luke—then who knows how the story would have gone?

He chose sacrifice even though no one knew he was doing it. Even though Luke’s aunt and uncle hated him. Even though he was seen as some strange old hermit. The world rejected him and never knew who he truly was. And that was exactly the price he was willing to pay.

Would you be willing to do that?

To give up your dreams and ambitions? To sacrifice all the potential your life holds—not just by dying for another person, but by living an entire lifetime of sacrifice?

Jesus did this for us, and it is His example we follow.

The Bible talks about this in 1 John 3:

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters… Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

And again in John 15:

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Good parents do this for their children. Good siblings do this for their brothers and sisters. Good husbands and wives do this for their spouses. And let’s not forget friendship. A good friend puts his friend’s needs before his own.

Imagine a world where this was how we all lived.

We are often told in today’s society that we need to take care of ourselves first. Certainly, there is wisdom in making sure we are healed before trying to help others. But what if you had an injured leg and saw someone trapped in a burning building? Would you still try to help even though you were hurt, or would you walk away knowing they may die?

That example may sound extreme, so let me give you another.

Your child needs surgery, but you are struggling to make ends meet and you have the flu. Do you still go to work and put in the hours needed to pay for the operation?

I think we would all say yes.

What if it was an illness that required constant care for the rest of that person’s life? Would you still give your life?

Working in a field where I help developmentally disabled people, I know plenty of people who are doing exactly that.

Look, most of us are probably never going to face the dramatic sacrifices in these examples. But just imagine how much better the world would be if we all truly put each other first.

A world where the desire for personal gain no longer ruled our hearts.

Where love was about how much we could give instead of what we could get.

A pure love that gives without expecting anything in return

A love that defies the broken, fallen, transactional worldview constantly shouted at us through social media and pop culture.

A love that is pure and genuine.

I’ll leave you with this final scripture from Philippians 2:

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."

Now that is a world I would like to live in. If you agree, then lets be the catalyst of change together that creates it.

J