Denying Myself, I Gain Everything

Monday, March 8th, 2010 | Lent Meditations

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? -Luke 9:23-25

God’s Kingdom, as described by Jesus, seems completely upside-down. Jesus says that the first will be last and the last first, whoever wants to be greatest must be a servant, and, in the passage above, whoever loses his life will save it. All of these are inversions of our world’s way of doing things. Yet the more I see them worked out in the lives of people around me in our church and our community, the more I believe that these inversions are not upside-down, but rather rightside-up… and it is the world that has things backward.

It is a completely different way of thinking and living. Rather than pursuing my happiness first (and ultimately failing), I pursue what God wants, and somehow, He fills me to overflowing with everything I need, and I end up deeply happy. Consider what Jesus says in Matthew 6:31-33:

So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

This is the paradoxical beauty of the Kingdom. We finally find our true selves, our true happiness, and our true meaning… but never while we are looking for them. Only while we are looking for Him.

Tags: Lent 2010