Losing our Life and Meaning in order to find our Life and Meaning

Scripture Verse that Caught My Attention Today: Matthew 10:39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Observation: Jesus was onto something here.

Application: I can’t swim. My ‘excuse’ for not being able to swim stems back to childhood swimming lessons gone bad. Be that as it may, I’m not asking for pity. Nor am I asking for a better instructor and the like. For me, learning to swim is not some big unrealized dream. Instead it is just one of many ‘gifts’ that I don’t currently have or necessarily feel the need to have. I don’t know how to play the guitar either. It’s no big deal.

But what experience I have had in the water has taught me much. Part of swimming, it seems to me, is learning to relax in the water, to trust its ability to keep one afloat. When in the water, tension corresponds to what amounts to an increasing pull of gravity. As our bodies tense up, down we go!

What comes next is usually the two-headed coin of panic and frantic flailing about in a dire but unfruitful effort to save oneself.

It can’t be done. The effort to save oneself, whether in the water or on the Spiritual side of things, will always be a losing effort. At some point our only life-giving option is trust.

One of the reasons I have trouble trusting the water to hold me up is because I demand too much of it. Basically I want the water to magically keep my whole body afloat when all that really needs to stay out of the water (whether constantly or at regular intervals) is my nose!

Sometimes I feel this way Spiritually as well; I want the Lord to keep me far from every danger, totally insulated from all my fears, impervious to any foes, and completely inoculated from having to dip my toes into any earthly challenge where the outcome is anything less than certain.

Fat chance! Jesus says, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

Spiritually speaking, Jesus doesn’t call for cautious wading but, rather, for a total plunge. In short, we are called to entrust ourselves to the Savior rather than endeavoring (and woefully unsuccessfully at that!) to be a savior for ourselves.

Yes, however staid we might present them, efforts to justify ourselves are ultimately nothing more than a futile and even pitiful flailing about. Thankfully, through the crucified and risen Christ we have other options. Our life, and the meaning of our life, is both lost and found in him.

Prayer: Lord, help us always to be willing to be lost and found in you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

(Readings today included: 1 Samuel 27, Psalm 141, 1 Chronicles 9, and Matthew 10)