thoughts on the word

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23
Aug 10

thoughts on the words: find, life, lose

thoughts on the word

By: Tony

Matthew 10:39 (NIV) – Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

For the last week, this scripture has been popping up over and over again in my mind. It’s an often quoted one, and there’s probably been a million sermons preached on it. It’s not even new to me, and I’ve probably read it dozens of times. However again, it keeps popping up in my mind. And when things like this happen, I usually have to write to make sense of why. Why this reoccurring thought?

Shoot, I don’t even know. But when I look at the scripture itself I notice certain words pop out as if they’re bold and punching you in the eyeballs. Words like: FIND; LIFE; LOSE; LOSE again; LIFE again; and FIND again. The first one “find” is good. I like to find stuff. I like to find something I thought I lost. I like to find money on the ground. I like to find new places to hang out. I’d love to find a brand new car waiting for me outside and then find out its free only to find out they are going to pay me just to take it too. Find is good.

Next is “life.” Life is a mixed bag. Life is beautiful. Life is a gift. Life is refreshing. But life can be hard. Life can be tragic. Life can be unfulfilling. Sometimes. The book of Ecclesiastes sums up life well as it states there is a time for everything. To dance, to mourn, to laugh, to cry, etc. Through the ups and downs though I guess we can all still conclude though, that it is good to have life. To be alive.

Then there is “lose.” Lose is the worst. The Cubs lose every year and I lose a part of me watching it. Dang heartbreakers. We lose jobs, especially in this day and age. We lose friendships. We lose marriages. We lose loved ones to death. Losing sucks!

So when the passage in Matthew reads “find, life, lose” to start, it comes off a bit depressing. Because diving back into the emotions the words stir up, I myself would think “great, generally good, terrible.” That order can boggle the human mind because you would think to find your life would be a fantastic thing, one that would surely only produce fulfilling results in our lives. But on the contrary if we find our life, we lose it? Is that even fair?

The order gets reversed on the second half of the passage when it says “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” It becomes “lose, life, find.” So wait, you’re telling me that no matter what I have to lose my life? Because according to the scripture if I find my life I lose it, and if I lose it for Christ’s sake I find it? It’s a lose/lose situation then right? No matter what I will have to lose my life?

I think certain words have a tendency to turn a human mind away immediately. Especially a word like “lose” and even more so when you are told to “lose” voluntarily. I mean, who even does that? We’re competitive people. We want to be the best at everything. Why God, would you ask us to lose on purpose and expect that to be appealing?

Maybe it’s because we never really had. I can’t speak for everyone, but speaking for myself at least, I didn’t know what Life was for a long time. I knew what it was to exist. But I didn’t know what it was to live. There is a difference. To exist is to be present, to go through the motions. To live is to experience, to learn, to grow, to feel, to have purpose, to become.

What I think we ignore in this passage is the fact that what we’re being asked to lose is our contentment with sitting and merely existing and to trade that in for life and life to the abundance. Maybe this is just a random rant to you. But to me here’s what I see in the scripture, no matter what you believe about them, let’s focus on the material at hand. “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” I now see the FIND in big bold letters. And it indicates to me that I am not losing my life at all because I’ve never truly known life. I am losing only my false perception of what life is. But I am rather finding true life, and going back to earlier, to find is good. And believe me I want to find. Because I see the condition of a world in which humans play lord, and I don’t want it. I am convinced knowing the dark things inside of myself as well, that I am in no condition to give myself or anyone else life. I need the One outside of myself to do a work inside of myself.

The Message translation of the scripture reads a bit simpler. “If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.”

Life is not about me. I am not the main character the plot revolves around. I’m not that good. There’s a quote in a book I read that said something like “I am a tree in a story about a forest.” Now the hard part comes, that being to forget about myself. But I believe the ends justify the means here. PEACE MY FRIENDS! and LIVE BIG, LIVE CAPSLOCK!

2 cents / thoughts on the word — No Comments
15
Aug 10

thoughts on the word: judgement

thoughts on the word

By: Jason
Have you ever flipped through tv channels on a random weekday afternoon and realize that 90% of the shows on tv are court shows? It all started with Judge Judy and spiraled out of control from there. what was it that made this old white lady so entertaining? She’s definitely not a sight for sore eyes. Then two things hit me. First, we all love reality tv. Regardless of how unrealistic it may seem at times. Second, the entertainment is not in the actual case or in the personality of the judge. it is the fact that us humans LOVE to play judge. We pass judgments all day every day without even realizing that were doing it sometimes. Think about it. Now they add judges to any show they can. American Idol anyone? You cant tell me thats not the best part of the show. Random heartthrob teen “X” sings OK, judges dont really feel it and next thing you know youre updating your Facebook status angrily with about 32 exclamation points because you cant believe Simon just said that about random heartthrob teen “X”. I dont know how many times ive heard someone say “Simon doesnt know what hes talking about. I should be a judge on that show”. We all think we know better than everyone else. We hate it when we dont see the justice we believe is due being served. How many O.J Simpson jokes come to mind? We see it all the time on the news. People who we believe are worthy of life sentences getting a few years for a crime. We feel cheated that there is such injustice. You see O.J. Simpson had a huge advantage. He had one of the top lawyers of his day representing him for this trial. Everybody knows Johnny Cochran now because he was able to get O.J. Simpson off the hook. Whether OJ did it or not i have no clue. It doesnt matter. The Judge let him go based on the evidence and witnesses and so on and so forth. However, there is a flip side to all of this. How many people are wrongly accused and punished for someone elses crimes? how many innocent people are sitting in jail right now as we speak? People who were set up and falsely accused? This brings me to John 8.

1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11″No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Now we see Jesus playing three different roles at once here. He’s playing lawyer AND judge for the accused woman. Yet, he is also the plaintiff of a different trial that the crowd seems to be putting him through. (We will touch more on that trial later). Jesus responds with one of the most famous lines of the bible. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. Thats pretty deep. See, we like to see people on trial. It makes us feel good about ourselves as if we are better than them. Like we would never be caught in that situation. But when the shoe was put on the other foot for the crowd who accused her, they all backed off. Well almost all of them.

13The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”

14Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16But if I do judge, my decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. 17In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. 18I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”

This is where things got really interesting. Jesus not only played lawyer and judge. He even took the stand as a witness for this adulterous woman. I don’t think Johnny Cochran would have done the same for OJ. The point in all of this is life is a trial. One long, ongoing trial that ends with everyone at the judgment seat. Except we have an overwhelming advantage to beat the case when we hire Jesus as our lawyer. He not only fights for us on our behalf, hes also the judge and key witness. But there is even one more role Jesus took on for us. Scapegoat. Remember the trial i mentioned Jesus was going through separately? Jesus was on trial for claiming he was the way to eternal life. He was on trial for claiming he was the son of God. More importantly he was on trial for claiming he was the only way for us to be cleansed of our sins. Now think back to what i said earlier about all the innocent people who have paid for the crimes of others. Jesus was charged for all of the sins of mankind. His sentence was death. The Pharisees couldn’t believe Jesus could let this woman go. That’s injustice. She was probably guilty of what she was accused of. But Jesus is not unjust. His legal system doesn’t run on the basis of fair. It runs on mercy. You are innocent just by admitting that you are guilty. Jesus already served your death sentence. Therefore, justice is served. Just think about how unfair it would be to die and see Judge Judy in the judge’s chair. You have no shot. Unless of course you hire Johnny Cochran. Good luck with that.