| “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it” |
| —Luke 9:24a |
I’ve never been a lifeguard, received lifeguard training, or played a lifeguard on television. But, I once had a pastor who did work as a lifeguard at summer camp. He told the story of how, during a water rescue, a lifeguard must calm the person being rescued by any means necessary. The person being rescued must relax into the control of the rescuer. Only then can the rescuer effect a rescue.
So it is in our spiritual lives. In our striving to become true disciples, we must relax into the control of the Holy Spirit, bend our selfish natural wills to God’s perfect will, and follow the pathway of spiritual formation that God lays out for us.
Dr. Luke describes this process in Jesus’ own words, as recorded in Luke 9:23-25:
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”
Just as Jesus surrendered His own will to His Father’s will, took up the cross of Calvary, and followed the pathway to His redeeming death, so we must lift up whatever “cross” symbolizes our own surrender to God’s perfect will for our lives, and obediently follow His pathway for us.
As “cross carriers,” we draw ever closer to becoming true disciples. And, we must never forget that our role, as disciples, is to share God’s love with others.
Based on a blog originally posted on Tuesday, March 15, 2016
