“Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” In modern language Jesus is saying whoever abandons his life will live life to its fullest. “Go for it! Taste the new wine of a life which defies the law of gravity, a life which throws caution to the wind, where danger and risk await!” Jesus is saying, “Abandon yourself to the One who will never abandon you.” (Mike Yaconelli, “Dangerous Wonder”)

“Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39)

Mike Yaconelli begins chapter three talking about the summer he turned ten — and he and his friends built a “rocket ship” in his backyard. For three weeks, he and his friends gave themselves over to, or as he puts it, “abandoned” themselves to the wild adventures of space. He takes this path to speak about our faith lives — that they should be something we “abandon” our full selves over to — because G-d will never abandon us.

Have you abandoned everything to follow Jesus? I can hear your responses: “We are not the disciples; how could we abandon everything in our lives like they did to follow Jesus?” Few can actually abandon everything, everyone, every responsibility and every relationship to follow Jesus. In many cases, this just sounds like irresponsible behavior — not truly following Jesus.

And yet, Jesus calls us to follow him — but the degree of our following is up to each individual. So, what is it you and I are afraid to abandon? Our comfort? Our schedules? Our careers? Our money? Our possessions? Our security? Our theology? Our need for certainty? Our fear of making a mistake? Our family’s or our spouse’s expectations?

Each one of us needs to make our decision about the degree we can follow Jesus — and that changes every day, week, month, even every year. As long as we are following to the degree that we can, and always remember that G-d never abandons us, then our following will never be in vain.

Pastor Dave

“We cannot make Him visible to us, but we can make ourselves visible to Him. So we open our thoughts to Him—feeble our tongues, but sensitive our hearts. We see more than we can say. Mindfulness of God rises slowly, a thought at a time.” (Abraham Heschel, “Man’s Quest for God”)

“…we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26)

One of the purposes of prayer, as I see it, is to make ourselves known to G-d. What we forget is G-d already knows us intimately, and knows our needs and concerns — sometimes before we can put them into words. But, prayer allows us to wrap ourselves in gratitude and to give our concerns to G-d — for our burdens can overwhelm and drown us in fear.

Paul is clearly aware of the difficulty prayer presents for us all. Jesus also spoke to his disciples about the difficulty of prayer — for that is why he gave them a simple “format”. (See October 11 devotion) But I like Paul’s suggestion that even our sighs “speak” the words that are swallowed by our hearts. We all want our prayers to be wonderful phrases, timed in beat to the thoughts and fears pounding in our brains. But instead of a choreographed dance of words and phrases, out prayers become winding strands of thoughts. So in the midst of tranquility and awe, we sink into agitation and disappointment.

Again, G-d knows our thoughts and our needs, well before we place them into the synapses of our brains. So why do we allow the thoughts of our minds to block our attention to G-d like our palms can block the glare of the sun?

If we accomplish nothing else, in the act of prayer we make ourselves visible to G-d. And even if it is for just a moment, our Prayers take our minds away from our own self-interest, and enables us to focus our minds on the holy presence of our G-d: creator, redeemer and sanctifier.

Pastor Dave