Losing My Life

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it." Mark 8:35

It's hard to lose something when we are consciously trying to lose it. I can hide something from myself -- but alas, I know where I hid it. I try to hide money from myself so that I will not spend it, but, since I know where I hid it, I will go right to it in a pinch. How do I lose my life? One way is to be so involved in something else that I forget my self. What about pain and suffering? Does this help me lose my life? Is that what Jesus it talking about? Pain and suffering only causes me to think more about my life. A tooth that does not hurt is a tooth whose existence is unknown, but a tooth in pain only asserts itself all the more.

Love will cause me to forget myself-- love that thinks about someone else. There is a love that is a selfish love-- a needy love; a love that desires to be loved because of pain. But, the love that causes one to forget oneself; to "lose one's life" in love -- that is the kind of love that applies to what Jesus says here. A love that finds its fulfilment in following Jesus. A love that is not for one's own sake but for the sake of another, namely, Christ and His Gospel.

Ok, now, what is the Gospel? It is, according to Paul, the "power of God for salvation..." There is a power that God shows in miracles; for awesome things like parting the Red Sea. This power may make us say "wow," but does it lead to a lasting inner change? How quickly we forget the miracles. But the Gospel is the power that works inside a person for genuine change -- for real, continuing change.