Luke 9.22-25
“If you try to keep your life to yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.” (Lk. 9.24). What strange advice! The common advice is quite different, “Study hard so that you can get a good education (if necessary extra tuition)… After graduating get a good job and don’t forget looking a decent husband or wife (only then not now) …Learn how to save (rainy days ahead) … Don’t let anyone hurt you…” It’s not that the common sense wisdom is wrong and we should live recklessly, the words of Christ has truth that frees us to find him even the most adverse of circumstances. He knows because he had suffered many things and yet rose from the dead signifying even what seems to be the end of the road is merely a doorway to a new existence.
Perhaps it will be good this season to practice holding on less tightly to our ambitions (or at least re-examining them or even giving them up). How about even letting go of the expectations others have on us? Then suddenly we find our hands free to embrace God’s life and God given ambitions for us. We become free to encounter the suffering Christ (who took his own advice and piercing challenge), He alone can give us life especially when things don’t turn out the way we wanted it to.
Action: Ask your pastor what did he or she give up to respond to God’s call on their life.