Matthew
16:24-28
Then
Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to
let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering;
embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all.
Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What
kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you
ever trade your soul for?
“Don’t
be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself. Before you know it the Son
of Man will arrive with all the splendor of his Father, accompanied by an army
of angels. You’ll get everything you have coming to you, a personal gift. This
isn’t pie in the sky by and by. Some of you standing here are going to see it
take place, see the Son of Man in kingdom glory.”
Food
for thought!
Jesus
is straight. Life is not a joke; every kind of life has a price tag; there's no
cheap, easy, feel good kind of life. Jesus is honest; very honest. He did not
come to rescue us from the way life is; He came to strengthen us to face life
the way life is. He did not come to do away with problems and sufferings and
pain; he came to lead us through all of those things.
«Through»
is a favorite word of God’s: When you go through deep waters and
great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of
difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of
oppression, you will not be burned up—the flames will not consume you.
(Isa. 43: 2) As Max Lucado says, «God gets us through stuff». Through the Red
Sea onto dry ground (Ex. 14: 22), through the wilderness (Deut. 29: 5), through
the valley of the shadow of death (Ps. 23: 4), and through the deep sea (Ps.
77: 19).
What
would have happened to those patients of Ebola in West Africa if doctors,
nurses, and medical personnel had not been prepared to risk their lives? What
would have happened if everyone had wished for nothing but to remain
comfortably at home? What would happen if every woman refused to be mother or
refused to take the risk of bearing a child?
The
very essence of life is in risking life and spending life, not in saving it and
hoarding it. True, it is the way of weariness, of exhaustion, of giving to the
uttermost; it is better to burn out than to rust out, to risk than hide from
risk, to give than to get, for that is the way life is.
"Don’t
run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is
no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your
true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose
yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?"
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