Losing Your Life

Have you ever had a season in your life that caused you to move so far away from normal that you actually couldn't recall what "normal" was? I think everyone experiences the need to redefine normal from time to time. It happened in our home with the birth of each child. It's happening again now as we are nearing the eight-week mark of Josh's illness. So, this morning when I read Matthew 16:25, it took on a bit of different meaning for me... "whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it". The Greek word translated "lose" in this passage doesn't mean to misplace something; it means "to put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to, ruin." That's a pretty strong word! But, certainly there are times when our life's course is altered to such a degree it is put out of the way entirely. The question is, what do we do with that? Do we mourn the loss of what we thought we had? Do we fight and argue as Peter did with Jesus about Jesus' impending death (see Matthew 16)? Or, do we understand God is sovereign and relinquish our hold on our life to lose it for Christ's sake, for the purpose of making us a little more like Him?

Losing my life for Christ's sake doesn't end at that loss. It ends with finding my life. One of the definitions of the Greek word translated "find" in Matthew 16 is "to find by enquiry, thought, examination, scrutiny, observation, to find out by practice and experience." If there is one thing all life- altering experiences have in common, it is their propensity to provoke pondering. In those seasons, we become introspective, examining every aspect of our lives, measuring their worth, and redefining our priorities according to our discoveries. If we do this in the context of God as our head, truly we do find our lives. This, friend, is another reason we can have peace in life's storms. Those storms are not without purpose. On the contrary, they serve many purposes. Losing our life in the storms is only part of the "silver lining". I am eternally grateful to be doing life with Jesus!