In Australia, we think we’ve got it all – we think we’re living the true life. We chase after sporting and academic success, the latest iPod, the hot girl at school, popularity, money, sex, power, and we have no need to put our faith in God. We live a comfortable life with relatively few needs.
We live a life of gain but what does it really cost us? Well in Mark 8:36, Jesus tells us that it will cost us our soul.
"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"
We’re so blind to the reality of our situation that we don’t realize that there is so much more to life than gaining the whole world anyway. As C. S. Lewis put it “we are far too easily pleased”. That is, we are far too easily pleased with the things of this world. There is so much more!
Tim Hughes has recognized this as well. In one of his songs he says: “The world is not enough for me” – for all its promise, the world is not enough for me. Why? Because the greatest thing that we could ever gain is not the world – the greatest thing that we could ever gain is Jesus, and the way to gain Christ, is to lose your life to him, to take up your cross and follow him (Mark 8:34-35).
This means that our selfish desires are lost, our ambitions are lost, our relationships are lost, our money is lost – but what do we gain? We gain the greatest treasure of all!
If we get our heads around this, if we treasure Jesus above all things, then we’ll want to stick it out in the hard times, because Jesus is the greatest treasure we could ever hope for, and it is a treasure for which you would pay the greatest cost.
So keep following Jesus, through the good and the bad times. Make the tough choices to put him first, because the way to gain true life is to lose your life to Jesus and let him take over.
