Well, our upside-down series comes to a close this week and hopefully you’ve gained some perspective on the backwards, or flipped, way of Jesus and perhaps made some adjustments!
You ever lose something? I have a few times in my life, but my wife is way better at it than I am. (That’s all we’ll say about that!) Recently, however, I’ve lost my keys – my CrossFit lanyard with full set of all my important keys. On it were church, gym – South Bay and RWOL, house, our fire box and gun lock and a couple I don’t know! GRRR!
I’m so frustrated, still, about this.
In scripture, there is another way to look at losing something and this one happens to give us our final upside-down concept of the series. We read about it in Matthew 10 verse 39 where Jesus tells us, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
The Greek paints a more precise picture. ‘Find’ and ‘lose’ are the contrasting words and converse ordering pair so let’s look at them more specifically.
To find: is a word to describe “discovery after a deliberate searching.”
(pretty obvious, I know, but losing is a bit less apparent)
To lose: is a strong word to indicate destruction, render useless, or even death. It can also be an intentional “to put out of the way entirely” so the thing is no longer in the equation.
With these definitions get the picture that if a person is focused solely on self-discovery and pursuing personal gains, solely for self interest, even if it’s not necessarily with negative or inherently evil intent, that life will lead to destruction. However, on the flip side, if a person will put their own success and gain, out of the way and search for truth in Jesus, then there will be a discovery of a life with meaning, purpose, and fulfillment along the way.
Alright, are you ready to get upside down? Are you ready to turn your world on its head? Can you envision a different life for yourself?
Maybe its time to embrace the way of Jesus. Maybe, it’s time to flip the script and try another way!
#LoseYourself
#UpsideDownKingdom
#Flipped
#RestoringWholenessOfLife
Brett
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