“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Matthew 10:39

It’s tough to lose. Ask any competitor. Ask any human. Yet God makes the supreme request of us: lose yourself. Ah, but not for our sakes and certainly not for nothing. To lose your life for Jesus’ sake is to not only find him but find the “you” you are supposed to be. The you God has in mind. Let me explain… 

No matter how connected we are with our loved ones, we are always left aching for more, for someone to comprehend our world and enter our struggle—to embrace us with a passion that seizes and melts us into a union that will never be broken. God answers this ancient longing. We melt into him when we let go of pride, when we let go of the itchiness to have things our own way, when we let go of desires and dreams and feast on him. But in losing ourselves for his sake, we discover our true identity; we step into the person we’ve been predestined to be. 

You can’t lose when you lose like this. After all, it’s the godly thing to do. Even the Son pleases the Father, not himself. The Spirit reveals the Son, never himself. The Son reveals the Father and never points to himself. The Father begets the Son, the Son honors the Father, and the Spirit reveres them both. It’s a divine “dying to self.” 

The offer to lose yourself for Christ’s sake is incredibly enticing: to catch God’s good mood, to delight in the cascade of his joy, and to feel him embracing you with a passion, seizing and melting you into a union with him that can never be broken. As the Spirit defers to the rest of the Trinity, as the Son divests himself for the sake of the Father, so Jesus asks the same of you. Fusion with him means finding who you are.

I step by faith closer to you today, Lord. I leave behind my wants and wishes. Show me who I am in you and I shall be ecstatic.