Wednesday, March 11, 2015

John 12:25-27 -- On This Hour

"He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour."
John 12:25-27


Some interesting things are going on here.  First of all, the idea that we should hate our lives in this world.  I think that is specifically pointing to the eternal life promised, and the idea is that we should value that eternal life over this temporary life.  I don't think it means we shouldn't live and value life, appreciate beauty, take care of our planet, etc.  Just we shouldn't love the present so much that we are willing to destroy our futures.
I love the serving Christ part.  First, I think that imagining everything I do as service to Christ sure makes it seem more important, and secondly, I love the "being where he is" part.  Can you imagine anything cooler than being able to hang out with God?  That's amazing. :)
In the last verse I think we can relate to this a lot.  Christ wants to be saved because he is reluctant to face what comes next, but he knows that he needs to go forward, and so he tells Heavenly Father that he will do it his way.  And that is an example that we all need.  We get paralyzed sometimes in life, looking at what comes next and it absolutely petrifies us.  We don't want things to get harder, we don't want to learn the next lesson.  We don't want to face our weaknesses or our sins and risk failing, again.  So many things.  But all of these things are why we are here.  We need to learn to make the choices and face the fears and learn the lessons.  It's scary and overwhelming, but like Christ (and Nephi, and Moses, and Jonah, and many others), we have to muster the courage to do it anyway.  There is a reason that we came to this hour... and yes, this hour is going to be really tough.  But on the other side of this hour, this day, this chapter... on the other side of all the challenges is always God, encouraging, helping, loving, and confident in our ability to return to him.  He believes in us.  He trusts us.  He knows that with his help we can get through anything, and become more amazing than we ever thought we could be.
Today, let's love that potential self, and that promised eternal life more than we love our bad habits and our current rut.  Today, let's serve Christ so we can go where he goes.  Today, let's do good, and put God before our fears, because that is why we are here, in this hour.

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