Choosing a “daily driver” life
Daily Scripture
Matthew 16:21-26
21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and legal experts, and that he had to be killed and raised on the third day. 22 Then Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding him, began to correct him: “God forbid, Lord! This won’t happen to you.” 23 But he turned to Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are a stone that could make me stumble, for you are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. 25 All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will find them. 26 Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives?
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Jesus told his closest followers he faced death on a cross. Then he called ALL his followers to “take up their cross.” His disciples didn’t like him speaking that way. At that time, a cross was an awful device for torture and death. “Respectable” people didn’t even mention crosses. Pastor John Ortberg quoted columnist Garret Fiddler: “Really, the cross does not belong on the Christian; the Christian belongs on the cross.” Ortberg added, “The cross is a reminder that there is something in me that needs to die.” *
- What does it mean to you to “take up your cross” to follow Jesus? Pastor Myron Augsberger said “Taking up your cross” takes three steps: “(1) making up one’s mind; (2) giving up one’s autonomy; and (3) taking up one’s identity.” ** In what ways, so far, have you made up your mind to follow Jesus, given up your autonomy to him as Lord, and taken up your identity and purpose as a Christ-follower? In what ways will you ask God to help you grow in those daily life choices?
- Jesus’ disciples’ initial belief that Jesus was the Messiah ruled out any idea of a cross. Scholar Craig Evans wrote, “In that time there was no sentimentality attached to Jesus’ death, and certainly not to the cross, a horrifying symbol in Roman antiquity.” *** For what reason(s) do you think Jesus found it important to talk to his disciples in advance about his challenging way of life? Had you been one of them, how easy or hard would it have been for you to accept what he said?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, so many voices tell me that avoiding pain and sacrifice is always smart. Your call is highly counter-cultural. Let my lesser self die, so that a greater self, shaped by you, may be born. Amen.
GPS Insights
Lauren Cook
Lauren Cook serves as the Entry Points Program Director at Resurrection. She is a self-proclaimed foodie, a bookworm, and is always planning her next trip. She has the sweetest (and sassiest) daughter, Carolina Rae, a rockstar husband, Austin, and a cutie pup named Thunder. She loves connecting with others so let her know the best place you've ever eaten, best book you've ever read, or best place you've ever been!
How many of you remember hearing your parent or caregiver shout, “Don’t touch that!”? Or maybe, “Get away from that!”? Or my personal favorite, “NO!” (usually reserved for when it was too late)?
I grew up on a farm, so there were a lot of “don’t touch that’s” and also a lot of too late “no’s” in response to things like barbed wire fences, cattle prods, or the occasional longhorn. My grandparents taught me a lot of really important life lessons, starting with these basic safety lessons to help me avoid pain or suffering. My grandparents also continued to teach me lessons about how to cook, how to grow things, how to budget and also how to build resilience, how to work hard, how to treat others, and that I could always count on them. These life lessons were also to avoid and mitigate the pain and suffering that life would inevitably bring.
My grandma taught me so many of these lessons from personal experience. She also grew up on a farm in Long Island, Kansas where almost everyone was an immigrant from the Netherlands and was part of the Dutch Reformed Church. She grew up with rigid rules, high expectations, and a harsh reality. Her dad died tragically when she was sixteen, she got married to my grandpa when she was eighteen and he was immediately drafted into the Army, and they lost one of their son’s when he was only six. There have been so many times when I have wondered how my grandma faced what she has, and in walking through our recent loss of my grandpa, I feel that I finally learned.
My grandma loves Jesus. She has built her life on the foundation of her faith and her identity in Christ has both made her who she is and has shaped her perspective on everything she has encountered. She made up her mind at a very young age to follow Jesus, she has given up autonomy (and the attempt for it) in the face of hardship and tragedy as well as in success, and she has walked through life knowing who she is no matter what: a beloved child of God.
The most important life lesson that my grandparents taught me, then? To love Jesus, to live faithfully according to His word, and to trust in Him no matter what. This one isn’t so much to avoid pain and suffering, but to face it as Jesus did so extraordinarily.
We all face really, really hard things. You might be in the middle of one today. We all face tough decisions, and you might be questioning one right now. We all find ourselves wondering who we are and what we’re supposed to be doing here on earth, and you might have been up last night pondering your purpose. What might it look like to put on eternal lenses, to peer through the eyes of Jesus, at your reality? Where might you need to make up your mind, give up your autonomy, or live deeper into your true identity as a beloved child of God?
I’m praying for you, today.
© 2024 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Garret Fiddler, Yale Daily News, April 21, 2011, quoted in John Ortberg, Who Is This Man? Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012, p. 192.
** Myron S. Augsberger, comment on Matthew 16:24 in The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 24: Matthew. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1982.
*** Craig A. Evans and N. T. Wright, Jesus, the Final Days: What Really Happened, ed. by Troy A. Miller. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, p. 4.
