Die to Live

It seems like so much time and energy is spent trying to stave off death. Eating right, excercising, even engaging in more obscure manners of prolonging life such as cryogenically freezing oneself. I was looking at the passage in the Bible the other day though (Matt. 16:24) where Jesus says "If any man would come after me, he must pick up his cross and follow me." And I realized that in order to truly follow God, we MUST die. We must die to our sefishness. We must die to our fears. We have to be willing to do whatever he requires of us.

This is not an easy thing. I felt the struggle so poignantly as I readied myself to make calls to churches to schedule speaking engagements the other day. Inevitably there are "no's" and rejections in these types of phone calls, and my old insecurities were so strong that I didn't want to face the calls. I knew that I had a message for God's people, though. I had a choice.

I could choose to let my fear of "death" (in this case death of my ego, my feeling of self-worth) stand in my way and shrink back, or I could allow myself to die and move forward. The following phrase has become my courage: "I must not be afraid of death because from death springs life. Without death, there is no TRUE life."