Laying Down Your Life

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself , take up his cross daily and follow after me."

Those are the words of Jesus.  People were asking Him what they needed to do to be with Him.  He went on to say, If you try to hang onto your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.  Amazing.  These are the words that I read when I was 22 years old that really made it all clear to me.  Christianity isn't raising your hand and wanting to 'be saved'.  Being a follower of Jesus Christ is a commitment, it is making a concrete decision to surrender everything and follow after Him.  It is giving up complete control of your destiny, of your life.  It is putting all of your hopes and dreams into His hands and saying not my will but yours.

I was in the Philippines in July of 1982.  I went on a short terms missions trip with a group of 22 christian teenagers and four adult leaders that I had never met.  We all signed up independently of each other with a group called Missions Outreach Incorporated in Bethany, Missouri.  We met up with a missionary couple on the island of Panay which is south of Manila.  While there we helped to build a church for the missionaries.  The conditions were pretty primitive but it was one of the best experiences of my life.  While I was there, I made a commitment to God that with the rest of my life I would go anywhere and do anything that He wanted me to do.  Looking back at it, I was surrendering the rest of my life to Him, my hopes, my dreams, my goals, I willingly laid it down for Him to try my best to do things His way from then on.  That has been my goal, although I fall short of that many times.

I have a friend who is a missionary in New Zealand.  He and his family have already served as missionary pastors in Germany for nine years.  They have been in New Zealand for one year.  While there he met the husband of a woman that attends their church.  She is a christian, her husband is not.  Her husband's health is failing and he needs a kidney.  My friend, the missionary, has volunteered to give him one of his kidneys.  I was astounded when I heard this.  I wrote him yesterday and asked if he was really sure he wanted to do this.  He responded today and quoted Jesus as willingly laying down His life for us.  He said that is what has inspired him to do what he is doing, namely, laying down his life for another.  He is giving a stranger one of his kidneys.  This has challenged me to dig deeper and examine my own heart and motives.  I want to do a better job of laying down my life on a daily basis. 

When I surrendered my life to Jesus in 1982, I thought that He was calling me into traditional full-time ministry like a missionary or a pastor.  I had no idea what God had planned for me.  I went to a Bible school in Dallas, Texas, called Christ for the Nations.  I graduated with an Associates Degree in Theology and was ready for ministry.  To make a long story short, this is my 18th year in education.  I am currently teaching Middle School P.E. in Southern California.  God has reminded me time and time again this year to be content with what I have been called too.  God has challenged me to accept what I am doing.  Whether  or not I like it, or understand it, I feel like this is where He wants me to be.  I have approximately 350 students every day in my 7 classes.  I see all 1,500 students every day out on the P.E. fields.  My ministry right now is to do my best to show all of them the love of Jesus.  My challenge right now is to willingly lay down my life everyday.  My challenge right now is to take up my cross everyday and follow after Jesus.
That is my ministry.  That is what God has called me to.  That is where He has directed me to serve Him.

What is your challenge today?  What is God calling you to do?  Are you laying down your life and ambitions to follow after Him?  Are you doing things His way or your way?  He wants you to surrender the way you do things to do things His way.  He wants you to deny yourself and follow after Him.  His way is the way of being a servant.  His way is the way of giving.  His way is to lay down His life completely for others.  His way is to forgive.  His way is to heal.

Laying down our lives is a daily decision.  We choose to live for ourselves or to live for Him.  Laying down our lives is a sacrifice.  A sacrifice includes a certain level of pain or discomfort.  When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane he asked God if there was another way other than the cross.  Jesus was suffering.  He was in such pain and turmoil that He was literally sweating blood.  He saw the huge sacrifice He was about to make.  He chose to submit to His Father in Heaven and lay down His life.  He said Not my will but thine be done.  He made the ultimate sacrifice.  To follow Him, we must be willing to lay down our lives for others.  He is asking us to take up the cross daily and follow after Him.