“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:35-36
Some piercing words in red…While I don’t think it’s possible for any man to quite “gain the whole world”, one might sure die trying to. It is so simple to seek to gain a lot in this life like fame, fortune, a good name, but what will that matter at the end of our life? Jesus says here that even if we do gain the ENTIRE world, but we lose our soul, it profits nothing. All that we earn, all that we are known for, all the possessions we’ve acquired will mean nothing. Sadly, most would rather profit in this life without considering profiting eternally.
In a few discussions and reflections recently, I can see how easy it is to compromise and change who we are called to be. A friend of mine studying psychology is currently taking a class on communications. Our conversation about this class led to discussions of how in particular, teenagers are prone to change or compromise their identity to gain acceptance and popularity. This person mentioned how they’d even lied about their father’s name in school because they didn’t have a dad involved in their life. This was done all to impress others and gain their approval.
We can so easily fall prey to losing who we are and what we are called to do when we are consumed with what this world has to offer. I’ve learned that the pleasures and comforts God has to offer us are far greater than anything we could ever find on this earth. If we are giving up our lives to be spent for the sake of the name of Jesus and for the gospel, then we have an assurance that we will gain eternity with Him. Such a backwards way of thinking and it goes against the grain of modern thinking. We lose our life to find it. We give up our life to save it.
It’s time to consider our profits and savings so to speak. What are we holding onto? What are we seeking after? What will be saved in eternity when all our earthly things are left behind? What will Jesus say of our lives? Will He even know us?