If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
-Mark 8:34-36

These words that Jesus says to his disciples, to us, are not easy words. Mark's gospel was written during a time of persecution. No doubt when Mark wrote this, he knew of people who were literally dying as a result of their choice to be disciples of Jesus. And that's one way we can understand these words. But does that mean that they're empty words for those of us who don't expect to be martyrs?

I don't think so. There are a lot of ways we can lose our lives, and I suspect many of them involve trying to do just the opposite. People go to great length to search out friends, clothes, jobs, cars, anything that they think will give them the identity they want. We try to save our lives through financial security, through a successful career track, through a myriad of other strategies that are, in the end, doomed to fail. They're doomed to fail because they all call us away from God, from what God asks to be... ironically, they call us away from ourselves.

In my experience, Christians easily make the mistake of assuming that to really give their lives for Christ, they need to do something that will make them miserable. I believe that this is backwards. God loves us, and intends good things for us. God doesn't want us to miserable! God just wants us to seek life in places where we'll actually find it. Again and again, we're told: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. And when we trust God's grace enough to love in this way, then we stop seeking the things that will only disappoint us in the end.

This is part of the foolishness of the gospel: love God, love others, and you find yourself. It's totally backward compared to the rest of the world. But as Christians, we're asked to trust that it is true. Do you believe it?

St. Augustine reminds us that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. Is your heart restless? Where do you look for new life?