L.O.S.E.

What would happen if everyone who followed Christ actually lived like losers? I don't mean that they sit around eating potato chips and watching entire seasons of tv shows in one day. I am trying to encourage a group of students at Granville Christian Academy that they can impact their school community if they live out Matthew 16:25. Jesus told his disciples that if they tried to save their lives they would lose them, but if they would lose their lives for him they would actually save their lives. We spent some time dissecting this passage. Of course Jesus was talking about eternal life and salvation. I believe he was also referring to how we actually live out each day. Are we striving to please ourselves or him? Do we do things to create a better self image or protect our image? Here is what we discussed as a class.

Jesus is teaching us to lose. When we lose he knows that we actually win. We don't lose at all when we join him and the things he is concerned with. How can we know if we are losing this life? A simple way is to look at each letter of the word lose. L stands for Loving God, O is for Obeying God, S is for Serving God, and E is for Experiencing God. If we Love God more than anything else then we are losing. We love him more than ourselves, more than things, more than popularity, etc. He is our top priority. When we love him we will Obey him. None of us are perfect, but our goal should be 100% obedience. It is important to understand that his grace covers all of our sin or disobedience, and that God loves us not because we are obedient but because we are in Christ. This is not perfectionism. As we Love him and Obey him we will naturally Serve him. We serve him when we pray, worship, serve others in need, study his word. Serving him is not what earns merit or blessing, however he does bless us as we serve. Our motivation to serve comes from the fact that he has been so merciful and gracious to us. It has been my experience that as I Love, Obey, and Serve, I will Experience God working in my life. I will see him and feel him in amazing ways. When I lay down my own personal agenda and keep him at the center of life then cool spiritual encounters become regular. We can all think of people who thought more of others than themselves and what a positive impact that can have on a community. I think of my wife's grandpa. With all due respect, he is a loser. He always has been. During the depression he left school and worked to provide a meager income for his brothers and sisters after their father died. He fought in WW II in the Pacific. Over a four year period he only saw his wife a handful of days. He lost personal desires or "rights" for the greater good. It was not easy. There were challenging days when he wanted to go home. He had near death experiences, but there was something bigger at stake. After retiring from a factory job he began volunteering at the local hospital. Over 20 years he amassed an incredible number of volunteer hours that received recognition from the White House. Our community is stronger because he again lost and served others. Has God blessed him along the way? Of course, he has a wonderful reputation in the community, he has family that loves him, and at 86 he looks back at life with no regrets. Jesus knew that to gain salvation and eternal life we would have place faith in him and strive to lose the concerns of this life and things of this world. But Jesus also knew that if we wanted to impact people around us then we would have to lose a self focused life also. The Church, I mean any church of Christ followers, any group of people trying to be disciples of Jesus, should be a "community of LOSErs." Many people spend too much time and money trying to convince ourselves and others that we are not losers. How freeing it can be to realize that Christ loves us and blesses us as we lose for him. People will feel safe to let down all guards and pretense when they realize that we are all losers anyway.