Matthew 16:25

Tuesday, June 22
Matthew 16:25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

What does it really look like to lose our lives? To stop hanging on to life?
Maybe another good question to ask to start this would be: have you ever felt that you are hanging on, desperately hanging on? What are you hanging on to?

I once heard a sermon where the preacher described someone on their deathbed clinging to the bed rails as if they were hanging on to life itself. Well, God is saying to let go. To let go of the life around us and cling to Him and the life He has. This reminds me of something my priest discussed with my fiance and me in pre-marital counseling. This idea that 'caving-in' to let the argument end doesn't help at all. The argument has not ended it will return and when it does it will be worse. You have to look at the long run, the short-term calm is nothing but a smoke screen. In the Bible Jacob bought Esau's birthright for a bowl of soup. He was so focused on the short-term that he forgot to think about the future. Does that sound familiar? Does that resonate with you? Unfortunately, our society is so focued on the moment that it has become counter cultural to really think in the long-term; but isn't that what we are called to be? Aren't we supossed to be counter-cultural? If a Christian is comfortable in the world, are they really a Christian?

A book called 'the Hole in the Gospel' addresses this. My father mentioned it in his sermon Sunday (I actually haven't read the book). We have lost our love for the needy and have worshiped the stardom of success. Our focus has slipped, from God to god-like-men; and we are paying for it.