GLEANINGS from the Daily Office – Losing to Win

GLEANINGS (from the Daily Office) – Losing to Win – Year One, Proper 23, Thursday, October 15, 2015, Matthew 10:34-41

“He who loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Whit found a caterpillar at Piedmont Park yesterday. He was so excited. He wanted everyone to know, people near and far. His teacher had to send pics. A few weeks ago Graham and I were on the campus of Oglethorpe University. He dropped a Lego man on the way out. We found the man but minus his hat. Graham was crushed. I made a trip back to campus and assured him that I had looked again. He still brings it up. Graham is hoping that which was lost will be found.

Losing is not all that appealing. Ask Graham. And yet we are called to lose our life in order to find it. Instead of searching for what we want or think will satisfy we are to give up the very thing we are trying to fill. We lose our life and in doing so find it.

This renders meaningless the ways in which we try to make a life for ourselves.  Let me build this business, grow this practice, establish this charitable foundation. There is no lasting value here unless it comes forth from a life lost for Jesus. Life cannot be found in these pursuits. Life cannot be found. It must be lost. In losing it we become aware of what it really is. We are found by the life giver.

–Frodo: “I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”–