You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am!

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?"