For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:25
Usually saving is a good thing.
We try our best to save money. Or resources. Or energy. Or time.
If someone saves a drowning victim, he’s a hero.
Jesus saves our souls and we rightly worship Him.
This kind of saving is different.
This is a miserly, hoarding, hiding-it-in-a-box-under-the-bed kind of saving.
This is being consumed with counting and recounting, always measuring what we have, and what we’re missing.
It’s my life and I’m going to keep it all for myself.
And we forfeit all of it.
When we take a savings certificate to the bank … we redeem it.
We turn in a piece of paper and receive contents of our account, something of worth and value.
Jesus proposes we surrender our lives.
When we do, He redeems us. But we are the ones who receive something of inestimable worth and value. Eternal life
Saving to lose. Losing to save.
A paradox.
A glorious paradox.