You give up time for your children and grandchildren. Parents say it was worth it for the joy in their face. A person goes to work for the poor and gives up a better job. You want to do more study and know you have to leave some leisure aside that you like. The Paralympics men and women sacrifice a lot to train and to do well. But something else comes through for us when we give up. If it’s real and true we get back a lot. It seems strange for Jesus to say – lose your life to save it. He’s talking about losing good things, to get better.
This can be a big challenge in a culture today that is very ME conscious. We can find that personal concerns take total precedence, without much care for others, so long as it does not interfere with them. But as long as one person on this globe is hungry or homeless or seeking refuge, the work of Jesus is never done. Losing life and saving life with Jesus is a call to community, to neighbourhood and the world!
If my own life is my main concern, my circle of care extends just as far as myself, ignoring care in a sustained way for the stranger or the outcast.