Whoever looses his life for Me will find it

This quote from Luke 9:24 is the last part of one of the so called hard saying of Jesus. The full quotation is “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” It’s really about letting go! Whenever we put something or someone above the Lord in our lives, it will, in the end diminish us. For example if we put mother, or father or husband or wife above the Lord, then when we lose them it breaks our heart. I have already said in other posts, that when we love Jesus as our first priority, we will love others more than if we put them above Him. I'm not saying that we should not love our spouse, indeed we are commanded to! It’s about holding onto what is temporal loosely.

I was reminded this morning of the Stockdale Paradox. Stockdale was an admiral captured during the Vietnam War and imprisoned and tortured for eight years. He survived, many of his fellow prisoners did not. There were similarities and differences, the similarities were that they all confronted the brutal reality of their situation. They did not deny the reality of what was happening. The main difference, was that the others would set deadlines, maintaining that they would get out by Christmas, then Easter, the fall, and then Christmas again. And their hopes were dashed as each deadline came and went, and each such non-event was accompanied by an ever more broken heart, and they eventually lost the will to live. Stockdale on the other hand, while he never lost hope that in the end he would be released, did not set artificial deadlines, and so was not devastated when they did not happen!

I have been waiting over twenty one years for the fulfillment of a promise the Lord has given me. In the beginning I was doing exactly what Stockdale’s fellow prisoners were doing, setting deadlines. And it was true, as each deadline came and went, my heart became more and more wounded. But then finally I learned to let go and let God. They say what doesn’t kill you strengthens you. There was a real sense in which I was fighting for my life, and I had to essentially lose it (let go and let God), before I could find it. The key, at least for me, seemed to be to while confronting the brutal reality of the situation, at the same time clinging to the sure hope of the promises of God, and leaving the timing up to Him. It is indeed something of a paradox, but I have learned to trust that while He is never early, He is never late! Praise his name!

Father, it seems that Stockdale because of the way that he handled things, did not suffer from a broken heart. But I did! And I know for certain Lord, that if it had not been for You I too would’ve died of a broken heart. But Lord You came to heal the brokenhearted (Luke 4:18), and You do when we cry out to You and surrender to You. Thank You for your healing barm, thank You for Your amazing mercy, thank You for Your sustaining power and love and grace and peace and hope and joy in Jesus Name Amen