“He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:39). It is an undeniable fact that the closer we get to losing our lives, the harder we cling to whatever scraps we have left. That's just pure survival instincts at their finest. We get so attached to the idea of what our lives are supposed to look like, and we become so afraid of the possibility that giving up what we have is going to let something even worse take its place, even if what we have now is so broken and toxic and radioactive that it is killing us to hold onto it. When our lives are hurting those that we love and we won't give it up, and when our lives are chugging full steam ahead like a locomotive off of a cliff towards utter annihilation and not even self-preservation will convince us to let go, then what else could possibly convince us? If we won't change for our loved ones and we won't even change for ourselves, then how could we possibly do it? We can give up our lives for Christ's sake. And I don't mean that we can make our sacrifice in His name or for the cause of Christendom. I mean that if we can't do it for our children or our spouses or our parents, then let's do it for Christ. We might have all sorts of layers of resentment and unresolved trauma and unpaid debts wrapped up in our relationship with our families and friends and even with ourselves, and this web of pain and obligation can make it hard to get all of our motivations into alignment for a common purpose. But it doesn't have to be that way with our Savior. He has already taken upon Himself all of the worst things about us and despite knowing us better than we know ourselves and feeling in His own body all of our weaknesses and predilections, all of the lies and justifications and half truths and delusions, even so, Christ loves us unconditionally. He wants to hang out with us and walk beside us and pick us up when we fall down even after seeing the ugliest and the most selfish and the very worst in us. When we take the time to ponder these great truths and strive to draw near unto Jesus even as He draws near unto us, we can't help but be filled with humility and gratitude and an all-consuming love for Jesus and for all that He has done to secure our Salvation. And if we feel such pure, uncomplicated love for our Savior, then couldn't we lose our lives for His sake. Yes it's hard, and yes, we might not find any good reasons within ourselves to go through with it, but we're not doing it for ourselves but for Christ's sake. He is the One to Whom we owe everything and His happiness and pleasure should be the main thing that we focus on in order to find the strength to give up and lose our lives for His sake.
