This blog is inspired by Andy Stanley’s message titled “Trading up.” I’ve been thinking about the nature of life and a couple of questions from Jesus. He asked, “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and then lose his soul?” Then He asks a follow-up question, “What would I give in exchange for my soul?” Mixed in the same story line Jesus makes this observation, “If I try to save or grasp onto my life. . .I will lose it but if I will lose or live my life for His sake, then I will find life.” I’ve started pondering deeply my life and have come to see it has all been one big transition. Parts of it I would have liked to just lock into time and have it never end, but many other parts I’ve wanted to hurry and get through. What I have come to realize, largely through living in Florida, is the most glorious moments of life, the ones I’d love to freeze in time, are over too quickly. I can’t “save” them if I tried other than in pictures and memories! The point is, why would I choose to live for something I can’t keep anyway? Then I am a double loser. I lose the moments because they are moving on whether I want them to or not. When I pursue all my own whims and wishes with self-centered living I’ve traded my soul’s ability to live on with Jesus in eternity. I’ve had snapshots of my life flashing through my mind as I write. I’ve had very obvious chapters that have come and gone. I’ve lived several different places that paralleled different chapters of time in my life. At times, it seemed we were in a time of sameness then all of a sudden a major transition or upheaval would happen. We’d move or someone would die and life was never the same. The kids were born, potty trained, off to school and gone in the blink of an eye! Life marches on! I can’t keep any of it no matter how tightly I squeeze my hands closed. I can’t imagine living all the way through life and coming up to the final transition, as I peer ahead to what is next (97% of Americans believe there is an afterlife) and saying, “I really wish I would have traded my soul so I could be done at this point!” or “I really am glad I made my career my god, my pleasure my god, my own purpose my god, everything god except God, because even though they are all gone now, except for the gold watch I got after giving my life to the company, it was a good exchange, it was worth losing my soul!” Jim Elliot was wise when he said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” Matthew 16:25 NLT

Blessings,

Scott