"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it." Mark 8:35
This sounds like quite an order, but it's for our own sake that Jesus commanded it.
But, to preserve our own life can seem pretty selfish, especially before God. When we go about on our own, making everything in our life just the way we want it, many times the process leads us on a path away from God. Our life would have our name on it, but it would fall very far from God. Directing our lives can isolate us from all those around us, and then we will indeed be gaining our own world while losing our soul.
Losing our life means to let go of it. We need to let go of our lives so that God can take it and shape it into the best that it can be. What do Jesus and the Gospel mean? They mean love. They mean support. They mean everything that is good. So why would we want to keep our life from all of that?
Giving our life over to Jesus is a constant thing, though. We periodically take it back from God's hands out of fear. However, in order to make sure that God has complete control over our lives, we need to be in constant communication with God through prayer and reading the bible. We will only be able to give our lives over for the Gospel's sake if we actually know what the Gospel is. We direct our lives on the basis that we know our every thought. If we familiarize ourselves with the Gospel, then we can allow for the Gospel to take over. It will be a lot of work, just as Jesus pointed out (take up your cross), but Jesus will be there every step of the way, guiding us and helping us.
Take some time this Lent to familiarize yourself with God in a new way. Find a new devotional, have a conversation with a faith leader or even your friends, or just sit down and read the Gospel of Mark (it's the shortest one). Also, pray for guidance through your process of learning.
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