19 February 2015 - crossing our i's

Jesus, you want to teach us how to find life.

You do this because we look in the wrong places for life.  "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it". We find ourselves looking for life and finding death.

Yet, you insist "Choose life, then, that you and your descendents may live". You do not delight in the death of the sinner (cf. Eze. 18:23).  You permit us to go that way, but you do not desire it.

You call us to love you and walk in your ways. You call us to hold fast to you and heed your voice. Your voice gives us your law. That is why we are blessed when we meditate on it day and night. That is why we find true life in your law. We find the nourishment of running water and we are able to bear fruit. We find resiliance against circumstance that makes our fruit never fade. We find success in whatever we undertake in you even if it does not seem to meet worldly criteria for success. Love is always successful. We think of the law as burdensome. But it is your voice, solid and available. Your commandments are not burdensome (cf. 1 Joh. 5:3). They are part of your invitation to life. 

but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Losing our lives for you is not burdensome. It sounds burdensome but it is not. It is the culmination of holding fast to you and heeding your voice. Even if we lose "the whole world" we gain something far greater in you. With Paul, we say "I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ"

We want to know you this much LORD. We want to know you so much that we can let go of the things of this world. We want to know you so much that we hold on to you no matter the circumstance. We rejoice because, as much as we want to know you, you want to be known even more.

You say, "Choose life". And you mean, "Choose me" because there is no life apart from you. There is no other name under heaven which saves (cf. Act. 4:12). So teach us to walk in your ways. Teach us to drink from the living water which comes from you alone.

Teach us to hope in you, not the world. "Blessed are they who hope in the Lord."