To Be Eaten By Worms or Cannibals: In the Resurrection It Doesn't Matter

A number of years ago I was introduced to John Paton through the biographical sermon of John Piper on Paton, "You Will Be Eaten By Cannibals: Life Lessons from John Paton." In that sermon, Piper records a conversation that Paton has with an elderly man in his church that is at the same time humorous and inspiring.  In response to the concern expressed by Mr. Dickson that Paton, if he leaves his post in Edinburgh, Scotland to go to the South Seas, will be eaten by cannibals, Paton plainly states.

Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer (From Paton's biography John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebredes,An Autobiography Edited by His Brother [Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965, orig. 1889, 1891], 56)

Might God grant the same kind of bravado to a younger generations of missionaries, myself included. Soli Deo Gloria, dss