The Replaced Life

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 10:37-39

When Mark and I first made our decision to go into mission work, we were very young—25 and 22 respectively. Most of our friends and some of our relatives didn't know quite what to make of it and, I suspect, some didn't believe it would ever really happen. However, both one of my grandmas and one of Mark's grandmas did believe it. And they were concerned. They realized, much more than we did at the time, that the commitment would come at great personal cost. Both were concerned that by obeying God's call on our lives, we would be saying goodbye to the good life they lovingly envisioned for us and saying hello to serious hardship.

And they were right. After a first wonderful term in Liberia, the civil war started. This thrust us into work among the Liberian refugees in the Ivory Coast, which was more difficult than anything I could have previously imagined. I really had no idea that God could, much less that he would, ask something so difficult of me. I deeply resented the price it was costing me to follow Christ—how much I was being asked to lose.

It was at that time that the verses in Matthew 10 became real for me. Jesus said I was to love God more than my closest relatives if I am to be worthy of Him. Jesus  said I was to pick up my cross and follow Him. A cross? Because there had been so much that was truly agreeable our first term in missionary service, it hadn't felt like a cross at all. In fact, I was under the impression I could "leave all" and still be having a good time. But now, stunningly, I had to believe if I lost my life—lost everything that made my life seen valuable to me—another, better life, would be mine.

Image Pixabay "geralt"

I discovered Jesus' example in Philippians 2: 5-7.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth."

When Christ surrendered to the will of His Father to become flesh, live and then die that truly humiliating death, clearly He was  "losing His life." But though there was nothing in it for Him at the time, He nevertheless surrendered. He surrendered, not because He loved suffering, but because He believed His Father. Jesus could endure because He knew that, although He would most certainly lose His life, He would find it again.

God asked me to follow the example of Jesus then and He continues to ask it today. I must surrender all that makes sense for a promise that makes no human sense whatsoever—lose my life for His sake to find my life. But now, these many years later, it's not nearly so hard. The promise of Jesus is not just for the "ever after" and, amazingly, I've already found that new, replaced life.

See Pulling Weeds.
See Putting Together the Bible Puzzle.
See Lessons My Grandma Taught Me Without Saying a Word.