what really matters

Luke 9

23 Then he (Jesus) said to the crowd,

"If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, take up your cross daily, and follow me.

24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.

But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

25 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?

26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.

Jesus is pretty plain here – He doesn't mince words in the slightest bit.

We have to let go of our lives, our dreams, our hopes, our desires – our everything.

If we don't, Jesus is pretty clear – we won't keep the life we have – we'll lose it all.

He goes on to say if we let loose of the reins of our life & let God take control, we will have the life God dreamed for us.

But there is a warning here – what good does it do if we get everything we've been striving for, stepping on people for it, & done everything humanly possible to get, & end up losing our connection with God?

I think about this often, especially when someone's death is plastered across the media.

Think of some of the famous or infamous people who have died recently.

I wonder what they would say to us from the reality they now know, in they could?

This letting go purposed by Jesus goes against the grain of what the world tells us is important.

The world says hold on to what you've got.

Jesus says let go.

The world says make it happen.

Jesus says follow me & let Me make it happen.

If the could, I wonder what people would say to us who have gone on to the next level of reality?

I wonder what they would tell us is REALLY important in this life?