To my friends and family,
I’m sitting in the home of my host, Juan, with my teammates and his two kids waiting for lunch. It's been an interesting culture shift coming from five months of Asian culture.This is now month 9 of the race. I apologize that I’ve been so inconsistent/vague/scrambled with my blogs. If there is one thing that I could change these past 8 months it would be to better update you all on the amazing things the Father is doing around the globe. He deserves the Glory.
I wanted to share with you all one lesson, one truth of Jesus that has been resonating so powerfully in my heart lately. Listen to these words ..
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will surely find it.” Matthew 10:39
I’ve seen a lot of things these past 8 months. I’ve seen a lot of small people doing small things in small communities to revolutionize the world. I’ve seen incredible people doing incredible things for the sake of God’s glory. And I’ve noticed something that all these people have in common. They all have a deep, experiential understanding of these words that Jesus spoke. They understand that true life is found and experienced when we become less obsessed with “finding” our lives.
Jesus talked about the “Kingdom of God” quite a bit. During this life, he talked about this more than he did anything else. More than feeding the poor, more than turning the other cheek, more than how to get into heaven or avoid hell. He talked about this even more than he talked about the cross. I think I’m slowly starting to understand this Kingdom thing a little better. See, we all live with something ruling our lives. It might be different for everyone. Some let media and the need to appear “cool” run their life, some let the pursuit of money rule, the hunger for fame, comfort, or whatever it may be. But at the end of the day, something is ruling our hearts, something is reigning. For many, including myself so often, we let the “self-life” reign supreme. Nothing has changed, Jesus knew and understood that the human condition was the same in the 1st century as the 21st. The condition to think it is right and good to sit on the throne of our on hearts and reign supreme there. But Jesus came to introduce a new way, a way that actually led to life and not death. A life that put Him on the throne of our hearts and let Him reign supreme.
Jesus came to usher in a new Kingdom where He Himself was the King.
And the King promises us that if we live according to his kingdom’s rule (according to this new way) and not ours, we will find the fullness of life that we’ve been looking for all along. But according to him, the gateway into his kingdom required us to lose our life. It requires us to step off the throne of our hearts so that he can sit there unchallenged.
Living in America most of my life I’ve noticed something about people. I’ve noticed that they can gather as much as they can on this earth.. money, fame, girls, power, status etc. but still feel so empty. Still feel like there is something more, as if there was some true life that they haven’t really experienced yet. And I’ve also realized that America is the home of some of the most insecure people on this planet. Traveling through Africa and Asia I’ve seen some of the most joyful, filled-with-life people who have very little money and even less status. But they actually trusted the words of Jesus and cared more about the good of others, cared about the poor and marginalized and actually gave their lives for their sake. They lost their life so that they could find it in the treasure of Christ himself. These amazing people give up their lives in the common, everyday relationships in the real world so that they could have an intimacy with Christ and experience the love of God. And the intimacy with God that comes from understanding His love for us in Christ brings more fullness of life and joy than any dollar amount or expensive house could.
Stop believing the lies that tell you true life is found in petty things that will one day waste away. Don’t believe that life is better ran when you’re the king of it. I’m realizing how unqualified I am to be king of my life. I lose things every month, I make mistakes daily, I hurt people I love.. I don’t want to be king. Jesus tells us in Matthew 4:17 to repent.. it is not our kingdom that we live according to anymore. Fear and pride are birthed in the atmosphere of that kingdom. Fear because we will always have a sneaky suspicion that we don’t deserve to sit on the throne, and pride because we’ll be so insecure that we’ll start to over compensate with false conceptions of ourselves. The good news is that Jesus invites us into his kingdom, where he is the perfect king and he is our security, not our frail selves. Throne the king, trust the king, and I promise you.. true life is found in his kingdom.
So I challenge you reader, stop being so consumed with your little dramas that can consume your life. We can get so caught up in trying to find some perfect life that we forget that real life is found when we live to lay down our lives for others. Learn to stop waiting to receive all the time and start looking to give. Give up a Friday night of doing something you'll soon forget and go love people. Go to a soup kitchen, go sit with the homeless and hear their stories, go help out a family member in need or do a radnom favor for a friend. When you live a life of giving you will actually start to receive. That’s the paradox of the Kingdom of God. Give up trying to find your life so that you can actually experience true life. There is a world in need of selfless people who don’t always have their eyes fixed on themselves. I’m telling you.. the power of Christ inside of you is your only hope for changed desires though. We won’t just wake up one day with a new heart and a new perspective. Just try to live a life of good deeds and see how fast you'll get over it. It’s the Spirit of Christ that comes to live inside of you and gives you new desires.. who gives you a true heart transplant. This is a miraculous work that takes place in the moment you put your faith and trust in him. So repent (change your ways and come to Christ) my friends, and do it joyfully because the Kingdom of God is at hand. And that is the best news of all time.
Joe
