Do live your life with a question mark? Do you hedge your bets and hold back, keeping one eye on the nearest exit, and always making sure you have a way out?
On one hand this makes a lot of sense covering all your bases, but on the other hand that is not what God asks of us.
Remember when Jesus told us that, “Whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
In this seemingly contradictory statement, God is letting us know that only our best efforts will do. Nothing less than investing everything we’ve got in building up God’s kingdom in us and around us.
Living out of fear causing us to hold any part of ourselves back from our life’s work is a recipe for a lifetime failure, sadness, and isolation. Holding on too tightly to what we’ve already got is a sure formula for dying from the inside out.
Jesus tells us we have an alternative – losing our lives in order to save them. This strange paradox is even at work in our daily lives.
Remember at times when you have been so engrossed or intensely connected with someone you know and trust. You are all ears! As you talk to this person you listen intently as the rest of the world falls away.
At this point we forget about ourselves, our image, how we look and what the rest of the day would look like. For a few moments we give our whole attention, we give away our whole self to the other. And in return, we find that we have become more on the inside.
This pattern repeats itself in every part of our lives. We give our best self into every moment, into any interaction, and hold nothing back and let all that is secondary fall away, we find to our surprise that we become more, much more. That is the “something more” that Jesus wants for us.
So let us pray for each other that we learn to give away our lives from the inside – give it all away – that we may have the real life in abundance now and into eternity!
Are you all in? Just say “YES” to God’s daily invitations.
