Day 3169 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV

I'm convinced that the greatest misunderstanding standing widely understood is that lie which tells us that our identity is just that: Ours.

And consequently, might it be that the many reject this narrow path not because of the varied requests and increasing risks involved, but that the highest demand it requires is the loss of the very thing we've come to see as all we have that is our own?

It's not that I can't grab at the gist, I can. It's easy. All of us go through life living with ourselves. We're our most constant companion along this ride, at least the one that we've acknowledged the longest. Whenever we rise, it's our own eyes we see looking back at us in the mirror. As we go to sleep, it's either our dreams or our nightmares we'll experience. The hours in between are literally all spent with ourselves regardless of whomever happens to be around.

We're always there, and literally always will be for as long as we're here.

This life that we're living is being lived by us, but contrary to clearly common conception, that doesn't necessarily mean that these lives we're living are for us.

No, that's where the world is getting all this wrong. Shocker, I know. The world getting something wrong? Who'd have thought? All seriousness continued, we're constantly sold this outlook that has us looking only into ourselves. It's all about our wants, our wishes, our comforts, our treasures. Life is measured by our successes or our failures. It's what we're doing, not doing, need to be doing, should probably stop doing.

It's all just all about us.

And this message resounds only louder as it's encouraged by all the clichés that add to the chorus singing this haunting hymn of haughty inhumanity. We're losing ourselves in this belief that we're to be living for only ourselves. And yet, because that's the modus of the masses, well, we easily find no reason to not play along. After all, if millions, perhaps even billions are all sharing that same conclusion, why should we be any different?

Why should we consider walking away from the world we know filled with rewards we can into a wilderness we don’t where we can’t see anything, thus providing every reason to not trust in the trial of testing what we know we’ll only fail having lived afraid of failure thus far?

Well, because there's been given us this truth by which we're to be set free, and for us to remain engrossed within the ways of this world into which He came to give His life so that from which He could fully set us free is to reject salvation in favor of enslavement. I know, touchy subject, as well it should be. Slavery is pretty much by all accounts a pretty messed up thing. It's a loss of a great many God-given gifts.

The question then becomes why we're obviously so quick to continue choosing it.

The only real reason that we'd make such a boneheaded decision is because we've never come to see our current standing as our standing in captivity. No, we've never really considered that we might actually be hostages held in a harsh existence away from what life is meant to mean. We've walked so long and so far amongst these theories teaching tyrannical thoughtlessness that we've simply become unable to think outside the box into which we've agreed to conform.

We don't see sin as enslavement because it's considered pretty fun to most. We don't consider selfishness dangerous because it promises an outcome rather pleasing to us personally. We don't know to look at life through the possibility that we're here for more than us because all we've known so far to care about is us. And we're in a world that's made the ultimate goal in life.

To live your best life.

If you've read along on this journey for any length of time whatever, you'll have noticed I've a rather deep loathing of that outlook. To live your best life demands that each person literally sit down and determine what's best for them, what they want for them, what will give them the best chance to look back from their deathbed and say, "Yeah, I lived my best life."

But what are some of the things widely agreed upon as being of good enough reward that they're in the running for our including into what's deemed our best life? Well, comfort is up there, we don't like pain or misery or loss. Success is a good one because it provides a platform from which to boast and brag. Acceptance it pretty sweet as it ushers in all sorts of warm and fuzzies.

On the other hand, we could just as easily talk about some of the outcomes that are definitely not on anyone's list as to what's best. Things such as failure, rejection, exclusion, they all carry this sense of loss that our comfort inside success won't like very much. Self-denial is pretty much obviously not negotiable as to determine our best life, well, self has to be involved. Loneliness is pretty miserable as we're an increasingly communal culture.

And we could go on adding to either list for some time but I'd rather just get to the point, and I'm sure you're okay with that too. The point is that we need to look at the lists and compare them to the example we've been given in Christ Jesus. Do the stories of His time here really seem like He's all that worried about that first list as to what makes our list of what's best for us?

Or is not what we see more along the line of the things seen in the second group that are widely if not entirely avoided at all costs among most?

See, that's my problem with this 'live your best life' nonsense. Doing so will prevent the things that are meant to push us closer to Christ. It will keep the focus all on us, right where it was never meant to be. It will demand we forget that He died to live inside of us as we’re trying to fill ourselves instead with everything this world says is a passing replacement for His sacrifice. Indeed, we’ll simply deny that sacrifice as it would demand our own in return, and that’s just not what’s best for us.

But can’t we see that what we see as what’s best is only what keeps us safe? If we're always comfortable, well, we'll never change. But our pasts prove perfectly that change is highly crucial. If we face risk, our fear of pain or failure will prevent our stepping out of the boat, thus ruining our chance to walk by faith. If we find unending success, we'd probably struggle embracing the many losses and miseries that come along the narrow spent leaving the world behind.

It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God. And in case you didn't know, it's not really about God hating our wealth or success. No, the problem is our loving our wealth and success more than we love Him.

Because, as we discussed yesterday, if we truly believe Christ to be the Savior He showed Himself to be by taking our cross, dying our death, entering our tomb so that we could share in that sacrifice in order that so too we might share in the subsequent resurrection leading to life eternal inside Heaven, we'd be desperate to lose whatever we need to in order to clear more room for Him to come in.

But is that the blueprint for a best life? To lose everything we've tried to gain? To let go of everything we have gained? To sell off everything we have and give to the poor? To lay down our lives like He laid down His when He took up a cross like He now calls us to do?

How is dying to self possible in our understanding of a best life?

And there you have the problem!

Nobody wants to. Nobody sees gain in losing this world. Nobody sees the reason in living this one life for something other than our reward. Because we see no reward in death, talked about that a day or two ago. We see death as merely the end, and so to welcome that end early just seems stupid, but only to foolish minds that think we can actually live a best life in a life that won't last.

I asked yesterday that you might consider what you're gaining in return for what you're giving. I asked that because the fact is that we're all giving something. Be it time, attention, money, priority, we're all giving something of ourselves to something not ourselves. What are we getting in return for that? Because again, if we're giving ourselves away to gain something in and of this world, we're losing. We're losing big.

Why? Because what God has given us isn't passing away. Salvation doesn't expire. Mercy is eternal. Amazing grace will in every way outlast this place. And so if we're devoting our time, our attention, our energy, our love to anything that doesn't love us enough to give us life in return, we're only fooling ourselves into a death that doesn't end.

Because we've been given the chance to choose eternal life through our willingness to lay down the commonly chosen opportunity to spend this temporal existence focused on ourselves and instead focus all we have and all we are unto the only One who gave us what we cannot live without. He gives us freedom that will never fail. If we choose to gain instead what we'll have to lose when we leave, we've more issues than we realize!

All because, as you've likely heard, God doesn't change. And since He doesn't change, nor does the Word He's given by which to guide us back to Him in that Garden we left behind long ago. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."

Remember that one? Yeah, that's our problem. How? Because we were made in His image. Here again we see that our bodies are but temples of the Spirit He's lovingly and undeservingly poured out upon us. We are not our own! Because He Word says we never were. And penchant for arrogance aside, what we think simply cannot matter as He will always have the first and last word.

Friends, my whole point is that we're pointed the wrong direction seeking things that can only be found in the places nobody really seems to be looking. Everything that nearly everyone everywhere is doing all the time is done only to honor themselves. It's selfish satisfaction, vain pursuits, personal glory sought in gluttony. We're taught to become these bottomless pits of self-indulgence, and because it feels good, then we ignorantly think it must be good.

Good enough to help define a best life.

No, our best life is a life lived for something other than ourselves. Because if we live for us, we benefit. And while that's great for us, we'll be the only ones who benefit. And simply put, Christ didn't die for one single person to find comfort, salvation, forgiveness, eternity. No, He gave His life for everyone! Who then are we to live like we're the only ones who matter?

That's not the example we're asked to follow. And while that request might seem a hard pass from this world content to pass away, if we want something other than that end we too well deserve, we'd be wise to stop looking for what looks good to our eyes and instead try to see that there's something bigger than our eyes can perceive.

God gave us His image, which we tarnished. Sent us His Son who we tortured. Went further still in the sending of His Spirit who we still refuse. It's clear that this world can't see what He's done for us to help us see that He loves us more than we love ourselves. We're in this place filled with people building temples to the idols they've made of themselves. And if we don't stop worshiping ourselves as well, we'll die alongside those who deny they're not God.

Friends, I fear we've confused freedom with free will. Sure, we can make our choices and therefore choose how we live our lives. That's free will. But there is no freedom in living a life always using that free will to serve ourselves. No, in that we're only slaves to ourselves. And that is in every way the unending circle of insanity that it sounds.

But thankfully we've been called to something better than what we've long thought was good enough to actually be best. And God, being the loving and understanding Father that He is, He's given us His Spirit to help lead us when we're trying to once again get ourselves lost. It's time we stop living for ourselves and let Him lead the way.

Because while we can get ourselves to what we think is best, we can't get to where He calls us to be along that same path as it's not on the same map.

Please don't lose sight of what you've been given that we can't afford to lose. We are just vessels that will eventually sink back into this soil from which He made us. Live to make sure that something remains when our remains are gone.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold