"Remember Lot’s wife.
Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it."
Luke 17:32-33
This is an interesting combination of messages. Remember Lot's wife basically means don't look back (in the story, she gets turned into a pillar of salt for looking back and wanting to return to her old life). And then this idea of saving or losing our lives, and that clearly God's idea of saving and losing our lives is different than the way we typically go about it.
In thinking about the connection between the verses, I think it might be that we get a certain version of who we are stuck in our heads, and we seek to preserve that image of who we think that we are. We often love that version of ourselves so much that we'll do a lot to preserve it, including ignoring what God is saying when he asks us to change, or go in a different direction.
Maybe that is what Lot's wife was doing. She was looking back at her idea of her life, wanting that life, rather than leaving the comfort of a city and wandering around with her husband. We see something quite similar with Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael. God asked them to leave Jerusalem, where they were very rich and had a comfortable life... and he asked them to go live in tents for years, eating most of their food raw and suffering some serious deprivation, especially as compared to their former lives.
Sometimes it is really tough to do what God asks us to do. It can be hard, and heart-wrenching, and make us feel deprived of something that we really wanted or got used to. Just letting go of that version of our lives that we've carried around so long as our personal ideal... that can feel like we're tearing ourselves in half. And yet, still... God's way is always the right way, and the correct choice, and the one that will bring us the most happiness in the end (not always the most happiness in the interim).
Today, let's be willing to lose / let go of our old version of ourselves in favor of finding the new version of ourselves that God is teaching us to be. Let's walk away from our former sinful selves in order to find our new selves, and save *those* lives. Let us never look back, or second-guess that choice. Let's let go of trying to live without God and embrace living with him. In doing so, we may indeed go through hardship and a lot of adjustment. But we will also find infinitely better lives than we ever could have had otherwise. Let's trust God, our creator, to know us better than we know ourselves. He will deliver us to eternal happiness, if we are willing to follow his path.
Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it."
Luke 17:32-33
This is an interesting combination of messages. Remember Lot's wife basically means don't look back (in the story, she gets turned into a pillar of salt for looking back and wanting to return to her old life). And then this idea of saving or losing our lives, and that clearly God's idea of saving and losing our lives is different than the way we typically go about it.
In thinking about the connection between the verses, I think it might be that we get a certain version of who we are stuck in our heads, and we seek to preserve that image of who we think that we are. We often love that version of ourselves so much that we'll do a lot to preserve it, including ignoring what God is saying when he asks us to change, or go in a different direction.
Maybe that is what Lot's wife was doing. She was looking back at her idea of her life, wanting that life, rather than leaving the comfort of a city and wandering around with her husband. We see something quite similar with Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael. God asked them to leave Jerusalem, where they were very rich and had a comfortable life... and he asked them to go live in tents for years, eating most of their food raw and suffering some serious deprivation, especially as compared to their former lives.
Sometimes it is really tough to do what God asks us to do. It can be hard, and heart-wrenching, and make us feel deprived of something that we really wanted or got used to. Just letting go of that version of our lives that we've carried around so long as our personal ideal... that can feel like we're tearing ourselves in half. And yet, still... God's way is always the right way, and the correct choice, and the one that will bring us the most happiness in the end (not always the most happiness in the interim).
Today, let's be willing to lose / let go of our old version of ourselves in favor of finding the new version of ourselves that God is teaching us to be. Let's walk away from our former sinful selves in order to find our new selves, and save *those* lives. Let us never look back, or second-guess that choice. Let's let go of trying to live without God and embrace living with him. In doing so, we may indeed go through hardship and a lot of adjustment. But we will also find infinitely better lives than we ever could have had otherwise. Let's trust God, our creator, to know us better than we know ourselves. He will deliver us to eternal happiness, if we are willing to follow his path.
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