HAVE YOU SEEN MY LIFE AROUND HERE ANYWHERE?
Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time Scriptural Readings: Deuteronomy 4:32-40; Psalms 77:12-13, 14-15, 16+21; Matthew 16:24-28
My dear encountered couples:
“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.” We all want to be saved. Jesus wants us to be saved. Then what is he talking about?
Jesus is speaking of too much preoccupation with trying to control so many of the details of your own life that you are all you think about. Everyone else exists in your mind as servants of your comfort and happiness. The will of God and everyone else is overlooked, forgotten, and ignored. You become the center of the universe. All else is to fall into step with your plans for your deliverance from all that is inconvenient and unpleasant.
What we all really need to be saved from is ourselves. For when we seek only our own will and comfort, we are in the dangerous position of ending up with only ourselves and no one else. I think of hell as living alone forever with myself. No God and no people around — ever. Sometimes we might think that would be great. But after awhile we all would grow bored with our own selfish company.
Jesus goes on to say, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” He is telling you that if you get into the habit of looking out for God’s will, seeking and doing real good for others, even when it is inconvenient and unpleasant for yourself, you will awake someday to find yourself saved from all pain and strain. God and people will be your companions in love and happiness forever.
So, remember his words, “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
