Mark 8:35 “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
The basic essence of life in Christ is self-abandonment. Tullian Tchividjian writes: “Jesus said we must die in order that we might live. Daily Christian living, in other words, is daily Christian dying: dying to our trivial comforts, soul-shrinking conveniences, arrogant preferences, and self-centred entitlements, and living for something much larger than what makes us comfortable and safe.
Back in 1996, I was part of a team that drove a truck for a mission organization from Wales to Kenya. We travelled through thirteen countries and had many eventful experiences over several months. Having returned to the UK, one of the women on our team wrote to me with the following reflections: “To me the calling I left Africa with wasn’t just a call to evangelism, it was surpassing that call – it was a call to live for Jesus. Whatever country I’m in, I know God calls me to live for him. Not for a car, a job, family, church, Bible study, security, romance, friendships, or anything else I might want to live my life for. That’s how God has started to change me since our trip. It used to be important what I ate, how much sleep I had – such trivial things I’d revolve my life around.”
What am I revolving my life around? What should I revolve my life around? What is essential to my life? What should be essential in my life? It’s sobering to really take stock and analyse how I allow myself to get distracted and corrupted, such that the trivial often displaces the essential. How about you? May God show us what needs addressing and changing.
Lord, enough trivialities and banalities! Draw me back to the essence of what life is about. I choose to lose my life for you and for the gospel today. Amen!
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