Mt 16:24
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Mt 16:25
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Mt 16:26
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
I used to think back then that Christianity, or my relationship with the Lord, was the key energizing element that would ensure my "success" in this world. I was certain that "the Lord's favor" would get me climbing up the corporate ladder a lot faster than I would have without its help. I'm glad that the Lord has lovingly guided me away from that flawed train of thinking.
What the Christian must realize is that the desire to be a "success" is evidence of sin still residing within the heart. The "success" I am referring to here is the clamor to be Chicken No. 1 in the Pecking Order, having the right to peck at the bottom chickens with no threat of being pecked back. It is the insidious sin of pride disguised as one's right "to be all that you can be". In the milieu of this deception, being a "winner" is the chief of virtues while being a "loser" is mortal sin.
In God's eyes, the one who is a true success is the one whom the world calls loser, underachiever, underdog, pathetic, bottom chicken, all because he has reordered his thinking into pursuing the kind of success that is marked by loving others with a kind of love that considers them better than himself and therefore not competitors. God's winner also has found the world's labels to be utterly meaningless and has firmly decided within his heart and mind that all that matters is for the silence to be broken in the end by these words from the Master's lips, "Well done, good and faithful servant".
Such a man is free in the fullest sense of freedom. No longer is he a rat in the rat race but a bird soaring high on wings as eagles. He is a man of vision, zeal, and creative energy--a dynamo--consumed not by the vain pursuit of pecking rights but by the passion to be just like his Master, a despised servant.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Mt 16:25
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Mt 16:26
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
I used to think back then that Christianity, or my relationship with the Lord, was the key energizing element that would ensure my "success" in this world. I was certain that "the Lord's favor" would get me climbing up the corporate ladder a lot faster than I would have without its help. I'm glad that the Lord has lovingly guided me away from that flawed train of thinking.
What the Christian must realize is that the desire to be a "success" is evidence of sin still residing within the heart. The "success" I am referring to here is the clamor to be Chicken No. 1 in the Pecking Order, having the right to peck at the bottom chickens with no threat of being pecked back. It is the insidious sin of pride disguised as one's right "to be all that you can be". In the milieu of this deception, being a "winner" is the chief of virtues while being a "loser" is mortal sin.
In God's eyes, the one who is a true success is the one whom the world calls loser, underachiever, underdog, pathetic, bottom chicken, all because he has reordered his thinking into pursuing the kind of success that is marked by loving others with a kind of love that considers them better than himself and therefore not competitors. God's winner also has found the world's labels to be utterly meaningless and has firmly decided within his heart and mind that all that matters is for the silence to be broken in the end by these words from the Master's lips, "Well done, good and faithful servant".
Such a man is free in the fullest sense of freedom. No longer is he a rat in the rat race but a bird soaring high on wings as eagles. He is a man of vision, zeal, and creative energy--a dynamo--consumed not by the vain pursuit of pecking rights but by the passion to be just like his Master, a despised servant.
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