“All to Jesus I surrender . . .”

How many times have we sung the words of that song—sometimes absentmindedly, sometimes in deep reverence and consecration? However we sing them, few people in this world understand those words as well as frontier missionaries do. Two in particular are on my mind this month: Kent George (p. 10), who has been serving among the Philippine Palawano people for 17 years, and Pam Lello (p. 26), who served the Ama people of Papua New Guinea only a year before losing her husband John there in a tragic accident.

All. That is a hard word to fully grasp. But Kent George is beginning to grasp it, and so is Pam Lello.

It reminds me of my least-favorite passage of scripture, Matthew 10:37-39: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”

Wow. I guess I just prefer verses that are a little warmer and fuzzier. As a father of four, this holy hierarchy of God and family tests my fallen heart. But these words came from the very lips of Christ, and I cannot afford to overlook them. All or nothing, it says. For your complete dedication, I will make you a new creation. This is a hard thing to swallow in an age when everything is evaluated in terms of risk management, personal safety and comfort. Paul described it best—a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.

• Twitter