losing & finding

"If you cling to your life,

     you will lose it;


but if you give it up for Me,

     you will find it."

Matthew 10:39



This is another one of those "if you do this, this will happen" things that Jesus says.


If you think about it, it makes sense.

After we start to follow Jesus what is the project?


Turning us into someone who is like Jesus.


So, that means we start to undergo a pretty radical transformation.

Radical transformation can't occur until we let go of the life we used to have.

We can't hold on to our former lives in anything that resembles a tight-fisted manner.

We must open our hand & let go of that life, & move into whatever it is God wants us to be & do.


If we don't let go of our lives, that transformation won't happen.


But if we do, that frees us up in such a way that God's transforming power is free to move in our lives.


And here's another thought too...

Life is a series of seasons.

I can remember in my life many seasons of significant change.

God used this verse to whisper to me over & over again...

     "don't cling to your life."

Iow, God wasn't going to be able to exercise the change(s) He wanted to institute unless I was willing to let go of the life I was living at the close of that season.

It wasn't that that life was bad; it just wasn't the life He wanted me to continue to live in the next season.


Was it difficult to let go of the life He had me in during that previous season?

You betcha!

But what it comes down to here is am I willing to trust Him?

Am I willing to be & do what He wants me to be & do?

Am I a servant, or not?

Servants don't get to pick & choose - shoot! sometimes we don't even get an explanation of why we much change, move, become, or quit something & become something else.


But if we let go of our lives, what does Jesus say will happen?

We will find the life God dreamed for us a gajillion years ago.

We will connect with the overarching plan that God has for the whole of humankind.

We will find the most real life there is - a life He creates within & through us.



(I hope all this makes sense.

I've been living the active realities of this verse especially in the last 8+ years,

     so I know what I'm saying, but sometimes when I say it, it doesn't come out like I'm thinking it.)