Jesus says: Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for My sake will find it. Matthew 10:39
A great preacher, Charlie Allen, says, "Not long ago, I flew down the Mississippi River for about a hundred miles. It was a beautiful moonlit night, and the great river below our plane looked like a flowing silver ribbon as the soft beams of the moon played on it..
It gave me tremendous thrill to watch the river, the greatest in the world. For centuries it has been giving all that it has. It freely pours all its water into the big Gulf of Mexico. But suppose the Mississippi decided it couldn't afford to give so freely that, instead, it began to hold back for fear it would run dry? Then it would cease to be a river and become a swamp. As a swamp it would be an ugly thing and a breeder of evil.
It gives all it has, but it hasn't run dry. God takes care of the river. God causes the sun to draw the water out of the Gulf into the clouds, the winds carry the clouds back up the river, and the clouds pour the water back. What the river gives, it gets back. One of the unexplainable but true mysteries of life is that you never lose what you give."
Charlie's affirming what Jesus makes clear when He says, "He who loses his/her life for My sake will find it." Now here is the hard question: Are we only living for ourselves and really missing out on what life is about? Or, are we giving freely with little self concern, in honor of Jesus Christ's constant replenishment in our lives?
Rev. Patricia E. Walker, AlphaChurch.org