Finding Our Life
A couple days ago I talked about a dream I had that led me to think about the freedom of the soul. Then along I come to this week's Gospel lesson- and, lo and behold- there it is again.

Matthew 16: 24-26-- "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

As often as I have heard these words, they have a newer meaning this week after that dream. Again, what keeps us hostage does not have to cripple our soul. The Image of God within us, placed there at the Creation by the Creator, can make all the difference if we are willing to take the chance on God.

But that idea of it being a "chance" isn't really what it is. It is a promise. No matter what happens, I am convinced, when God is in charge, that about says it all. Now I don't mean that all will be rosy and the way we want it to be. But it will be the way it is supposed to be and we will have the knoweledge that God is in charge.

Sarah at Dylan's Lectionary Blog ended her thoughts on this extended passage this way:

As we follow Jesus, things will change -- us, our relationships, our world. Change means losing things as they were, but if we've caught Jesus' vision for how God is redeeming the world, we know that what we gain is of far greater value than the chains we lose. Jesus brings us out of old ways of being and relating that bring sorrow and death so that we can be free for new ways of relating to one another, and in the self-giving love in which Jesus forms us, we find real, deep, and eternal joy.

Thanks be to God!