so I have been remembering the passage in which Jesus claims that we must live lose our life in order for our lives to be saved (Mark 8). And I have been trying to think about what does that mean for those of us who are faithful? What does it mean to lose our life?
For some I am sure this is the moment that in complete despair and in an utter hole of darkness they came to not only believe but to trust in Christ. But for many this is not what Christ is talking about, for there are many who have never really hit a "rock-bottom" moment or a moment in which faith was not a part of their lives...
So how do the faithful lose their life in order to be saved? Or as some claim, if you never feel that moment of rock-bottom are you never truly saved? Well of course I don't believe the later statement...(Somewhere in my journeys across the internet I found a story, and I wish I could give credit were credit is due but I just can't remember when / where / or who I found this story.)
The story is of a young traveler who left her native home to travel the world and see the sights. Upon returning to her small remote village, she was welcomed home with open arms and true excitement in hearing her stories. Yet she realized that for as hard as she tried, she just couldn't explain all that she had seen or experienced for it just left many confused and more bewildered. The villagers just couldn't envision all that she had seen for there was no framework for them to understand some of the creatures or the plants. Eventually she just drew a map of her travels and after a nice visit, left the village once more to explore more. The villagers framed the map and it became almost a sacred item.
The lesson here is that they were so amazed by this map, and held it to almost a Godly level and YET no one tried to follow the map. No one else left the village to see or experience better things. They got so caught up in the paper map that they didn't realize it was really an adventure waiting for them.
Often we get so caught up in all the details that we fail to live our lives. We get caught up in the church politics or in reading the Bible word-by-word. We get caught up in following only one set of instructions that we fail to actually LIVE into Christ's ways. Christ didn't say come and study me, he said come and follow me - come and live like me. Unless we are willing to give into living our lives following Christ then we are just like these villages, stuck in closed life. We might be doing well, we might be happy but imagine the sights we could see if only we followed!
It is easy to get caught up in our own lives - our own villages - that it isn't that we forget our faith or that we don't strive to live a faithful life but it is that we have failed to live for Christ. Instead we live for ourselves. We pray that our wills happen and our desires take place. We pray that things turn out our way and that people start acting like we expect or want them too. We judge people on our own beliefs in the Bible and claim that this is what it means to be Christian. And yet, this is just living in a village, worshiping a map - or in our case: sitting in a pew worshiping a cross. Jesus died on the cross so that we can live...
Jesus died on the cross so that we could LIVE...not so that we could look at the cross, worship the cross or hold sacred the cross without wondering what would happen if we followed the cross. Jesus asked his disciples to take up the cross with him - to carry the burdens of being Christ and to FOLLOW his ways.
So the challenging in losing our lives to be saved...is getting past ourselves. Getting past our own wills, getting past our own lives, getting past our own fears, leaving behind our struggles in order to truly FOLLOW Christ...to leave the pews and walk in Jesus footsteps trusting the map left behind will take a places that our own wills never could imagine.
