a lost soul

All four of the gospel writers took the time to recount an instance where Jesus said something like this…

If you try to hold onto your life you will lose it, but if you lose your life for my sake – you will find it. In fact, a person could gain all there is to gain in this world, yet lose their soul, and be unable to buy it back. (Rob’s paraphrase of; Matt 16:24-26 Mark 8:34-37 Luke 9:23-25 John 12:23-25).

Take a moment to read all four passages. As you do… feel… what emotion do these passages stir up for you? Some of us feel hope stirred – that God can save our life, but most of us feel things like guilt, fear, discouragement, uncertainty – what does it mean to give up my life? Life has a lot of uncertainty. We usually combat this with our own wisdom, and depend on our own means to get us happiness. The thought of giving up our concept of happiness and fulfilment – in exchange for a concept we do not understand, is difficult for us. But I suspect it is supposed to be difficult, thus requiring the ingredient – “faith”.

And so we come to the first question:

What kind of trust in Jesus, would it take in order to give up EVERYTHING?

This kind of trust is on the level of desperation. In other words… if God is NOT infinitely loving, powerful, and full of grace toward me…. I’m totally screwed. The question deepens as I consider; “Do I trust Jesus that much, that way?”

But there is an even more radical thought that comes from these passages. Radical, because it is not the way we have commonly come to understand what Jesus is saying. We read the words Matthew recorded;

"If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?"

We would normally read this to say that without giving up my life – I risk losing my eternity in heaven. We know that is true from other scriptural teaching. BUT, wonder with me for a moment… What if Jesus was not talking about losing your eternity in heaven? Let’s take a look.
Two of the four Gospels quote Jesus as referring to one’s “soul” (Greek word; “psuche/psyche”). This word encompasses “Life”, “soul”, “self”. It describes the vitality of life, and “It also has the meaning of the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions...” (p. 1040 Unger’s Bible dictionary). Interestingly though, this is NOT the word used to describe “eternal soul/spirit” (pneuma). Jesus chose to use the word “psuche” instead.

This changes things! The difference in interpretation of these passages is subtle but profound. Jesus is saying that; if I fail to fully give up my life – I risk losing the vitality of life here and now!!! This helps explain all the miserable Christians out there! The misery (loss of psuche) is a result of less than total surrender to God.

Stop and check yourself… how am I doing at giving up my life to God?… and how much vitality am I experiencing in life?… I wonder if they’re connected?

Years ago I saw a poll done with teenagers that asked the question; “would you rather be bored or scared?” Guess what the overwhelming response was… you got it, they would rather be scared than bored. Are you and I any different? Think about it… most people who have no time for church, religion, or God use the reason “It’s boring”. But I think that Jesus is making it pretty clear in these passages that the life of one of his followers should not be boring. Scary yes, but not boring. What have we done to Christianity that it could even be accused of being boring?

If you’re like me – you’re still restless and discouraged about the prospect of “giving your life up”. To be honest, I don’t know exactly what that means for me, let alone what it might mean for you. But I do know that I am unwilling to be one of those “followers” of Jesus who fails to give up everything for him and lose my life/soul. So I embrace the scary side of following Jesus, and pray that He is gentle with me. It’s kind of like meeting with your trusted doctor who tells you that he must perform immediate surgery on you, he will not state the reason, and adds to your fear by saying that he will not tell you what he must cut out, or cut off! But he assures you “it will be worth it”. How about a second opinion? This crazy example is exactly what Jesus is offering you. Not “will you sell everything you own and live in a box?”… necessarily. But will you allow him to do whatever he must, whatever it takes, to lead you in the life He has designed you for? Will you obey when He says “give that up”? Will you trust when life’s circumstances hit you like a hurricane? Note here that life will hit hard, whatever you choose, it might as well have some significance to it. Honestly, even writing this stuff scares me! What’s going to happen to me this year? Will I regret saying this? No, I choose to trust Him. I chose to trust that His vision for my life is better than mine. Only He can bring my soul to life.

So… if you’re with me in this, try and make the following statement yours…

“I (your name), choose to lose my whole life for You and for Your Kingdom”

What thoughts are preventing you from saying that? What do you need to just let go of right now?

Stop reading and pray for awhile if you need to.

I recently read the folowing in "Second-hand Jesus” by Glenn Packiam;
“So if you haven’t yet experienced the doors of the great wooden horse bursting open with warriors bent on your defeat, wait. It’s coming. And when it does, when Christ comes to save your life by leading you to lose it, embrace Him. Embrace Him again as you did at first when you thought Christianity was all about your happiness. Embrace His work. Count it all joy. It will save your life. Again.”