Meditation of the Week – September 12

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” These words are very difficult to swallow. Why would God give us life and then tell us we need to lose it? The world speaks to us; the message we hear is in order to be successful, we have to be a certain image, profession, title, have money. God calls us to leave these worldly things behind, deny ourselves of the things of the world because they become a distraction to our purpose. That purpose is to help others to know Christ, to live in Christ and serve Christ. We ourselves must be the Christ’s in the world, no matter what we are doing. We are followers of Christ, which makes us friends of Christ. In our relationship we find trust in the one who can take care of every obstacle that comes our way, because He is the Creator of all things. In Christ, we find our peace.