Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
Matthew 16:24-26

Death is a given in life whether or not people choose to think about it. While we would agree that to dwell on one’s death is a bit morbid, to not think about one’s impending death is repressing the inevitable. The Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once wrote, “Philosophy is perfectly right in saying that life must be understood backwards. But then one forgets the other clause – that it must be lived forwards.” In other words, we must accept the inevitability of our death but then turn around and live our life in a meaningful way forward. 

There is also another death that Jesus calls his disciples to. Again, our tendency is to dismiss it as not applicable or to deny it as if it’s not part and parcel of following the Master. When Jesus invited his followers to take up their cross and follow him, it was a clear call to enter into a kind of death. What are we to die to then? The best way to understand this is to think of it as a daily death to self-will, self-fulfillment, and self-pleasure. Our hearts cling to so many things that give us a sense of autonomy from God. To surrender every hope and dream, every possession, and every kind of security will feel very much like a death, but Jesus said it is the way to actually find life.

Father, today I must admit that my life is pretty good. It’s hard for me to give it up entirely with both palms facing up and open wide. There is much about my life where I think I do a good job and it’s comfortable. Yet, today let me be confronted with this radical invitation from Jesus to actually die to those very things. Help me to see more clearly today that in dying to myself, the very life you promised to give will be mine.