A life worth dying for!!

…and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. – Matt. 10:38-39

This is one of those sayings of Jesus that used to scare me. The truth is I wanted to find my life. Like any young man, I wanted to find love, adventure, joy, and anything else that life had to offer. There was something inside of me that longed for a full life of meaning! I also wanted to follow Jesus and the words from this passage did not bring me comfort. It sounded like I had to choose! I could have Jesus or the life I really wanted to live.

Then I thought about the circular nature of Jesus statement. Loose it, find it, loose it, find it. The key is found in the sentence before this one; “anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” The cross Jesus asks me to take is a real cross which will always involve loosing your life but the cross also always involves resurrection!

Any life I would find on my own would not be worth living. In loosing my life in Him, I find the very life I always longed for. I did have to choose but it was not between the good life and Jesus. It was between the life I could make for myself and the life Jesus would lead me to.

It’s been said that good is the enemy of best. That’s why American life can be so difficult. We can have what seems like a pretty good, passable, life just doing the American thing but the tragedy is it keeps us from the resurrected life Jesus intends for us…real life, abundant life!!

A life worth dying for.