Dying to live

John 12:24-25New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

For a long time, the word I focused on in this passage was "hate."  

As if: "Really, Jesus? You want me to hate my life?"

No. Not really.  Or at least, that's not it.

The previous verse really helps here.  What good is a grain of wheat on it's own? Say you pick one and put it on your shelf. What then?

So, maybe it'll be a good memento of the trip to the farm you took, or perhaps make you think of bread.

But will it be doing what a grain of wheat is made to be doing?

And likewise, when we are so content with how our live IS, are we doing what we are meant to be doing? Learning, growing, changing...

Becoming?

That's what we are.  Becoming.

Loving our life is fine as long as we are remembering that we are not finished yet.

When we want to stay put, not grow, or change, or learn, or become, we forget that.

There's a lot of grief going on in churches today that has to do with missing how things used to be. And I get that. I even feel it sometimes myself.

But then I remember that we are always becoming. We are not finished. And when we hold on too tightly to what IS or what WAS, we lose sight of who we are to be.

In what ways is your life challenging you to grow? To become? 

To fall into the earth and die to what is so that you can grow into what will be.

Lord, help me to die to myself so that I can live for you.  Amen.