cling not

This is Jesus talking here to his disciples in Matthew 10:39.

 "If you cling to your life,

you will lose it;

but if you give it up for me,

you will find it."

This verse God has used to echo through my life since late in 2007.

It was the "verse for the year" for 2008.

When it became obvious that it was supposed to be the verse for 2008, I had a deeply spiritual response.

I thought to myself, "oh, crap!"

like I said, deeply spiritual...

One of the things God kept whispering to me all year long that year, & EVERY year since, was & is "don't cling to your life."

iow, as a follower of Jesus, DON'T hold on to life as it is with a death grip.

If there is one thing we need to know is that one of the strongest constants in the life of a follower of Jesus is that CHANGE IS THE NORM.

Especially for the last 25 years, there has been one thing I have said to the Lord more often than any other statement...

"You want me to do WHAT?!!!"

So, I can't hold on to things as they are - the status quo.

The thing that I started to see back then, & in EVERY year since, lies in the second half of the verse.

If I just let go, adopt an attitude of "whatever, God," then what will unfold is the life God has planned for me all along.

Did I mention that this life & plan He has for me is seldom comfortable & a lot of the time pretty scary?

But it is what it is.

So in the 17 years since God has been bouncing it around in my mind, here's what sticks out...

1. don't cling to things as they are - change, often rapid, is the norm for a follower of Jesus.

2. if we just let go & say "whatever" to God, that's exactly what will happen - WHATEVER the plan is from Him, it will unfold.

Just know that the response to that whatever will most likely be, "You want me to do WHAT?!!!"