Losing our life...

"Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. The one who receives you receives me, and the one who receives me receives the one who sent me."
- Matthew 10: 39-40

The whole idea of losing your life is something that we all worry about. As the baby boomers continue to age, we are discovering that 50 is the new 30 and that gray is the new black. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's who we are as a society.

It's amazing how many patients tell me that the "Golden Years," should be renamed to something that is more reflective of learning how to grow old with all of it's challenges.  I'm not sure there is a name that could be used.

All I know is that while growing older, the world changes.  Some things still stay the same, while other things just seem to take my breath away.  As we live each day, we are still being offered ways to serve God and live the life that God wants for us.

The Beatitudes offer us a self-portrait of Jesus, and what God would like for us to mirror daily. At first it might seem to be a most unappealing portrait - who wants to be poor, mourning and persecuted?

Who can be truly gentle, merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker, and always concerned about justice? Where is the realism here? This would certainly not go well for many of us. Don't we have to survive in this world and use the ways of the world to do so?

I just had a brilliant idea. Let's start a new reality show. "Be the Beatitudes, or Be Banished." Okay, so the coffee hasn't really kicked in and I'm still dreaming, and who wants to spend time in front of a television watching the underdog prevail (unless it's the last place team in a sports league beating the number one seat).

Jesus shows us the way to be in the world without being of it. When we model our lives on his, a new world will open up for us. The Kingdom of Heaven will be ours, and the earth will be our inheritance.  I'm grateful the inheritance will be nothing like what we are encountering now with so much chaos, uncertainty and pain.

We will be comforted and have our all that we need; mercy will be shown to us. Yes, we will be recognized as God's children and truly see God, not just in an afterlife, but here and now.

Our challenge to day and each day, is to try to live our lives that resembles more of what Jesus describes, than some way that causes you to lose your life in all the wrong ways.

Stay in God's grip!

G. Todd Williams (c) 2020