Losing to Gain?

One of my favorite authors is D.A. Carson. Although he has done an excellent job of addressing many different issues one I have especially enjoyed the way he points out irony in scripture. The reality is that the word of God was written by real people with personalities and he does a great job pointing that out.

One of the things I initially found most ironic was Jesus’ teaching on life. Jesus said that to gain life you have to loose it, to be great in the kingdom you have to be a servant, least and last. At first glance I thought this was dripping with irony, however the more I meditate on it I think it is simply common sense.

Another topic that I enjoy is finance/investments. Now I am not very good at it, but I do enjoy learning about different financial markets and fund opportunities (so bear with me if you hate finance). Everyone knows that if you want to have money for retirement you have to invest it. If you just let your cash sit in your checking account your interest rate wont even hit inflation and you will consistently loose money. The only way to make money is to invest it in a profitable fund. We have to let go of it and put it in something greater than itself so that it will grow. At least for a time we loose it so that we might gain it.

Now what if there was a fund that was guaranteed a 1000% annual return? What if there was a fund where it was impossible to loose money? You would most likely reject all notion of diversification and invest every thing in this one fund. You wouldn’t even be out of line to begin selling things you could do without in order to put the profit in this particular fund. Wouldn’t it be logical to also go and tell everyone you knew about this new found fund? Now the reality is that for a time you would be without. You wouldn’t have access to that cash immediately but you would endure living without for the joy of what would come later.

I think this is exactly what Christ is talking about. He calls us to invest our lives in something greater than ourselves so that we might take hold of that something greater. Sure maybe we will be without today, maybe we will be uncomfortable (its 9:30 pm and I am sitting on my bed sweating- with the fan on), but if we have taken our comfort and given it up to invest in something greater isn’t it worth it? Think of the previously mentioned fund, would it make any sense to not invest everything in it? I think that’s what Christ calls us to, to give him everything. To loose our life that we might gain it, it seems ironic but we hold to the same principles elsewhere.

Life with Christ is crazy. I think it’s worth a try.