[253 words]
Most of us have had the delight of finding something of value—a dollar bill on the sidewalk, a piece of jewelry in the grass, a tool by the wayside. I recall hearing this saying in my boyhood: “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” In the spiritual realm, however, the expression sounds like this: “Keepers weepers, losers finders.” This seeming contradiction is what discipleship is all about. According to Jesus in Matthew 16:25, if we put our selfish desires first, we become losers. But if we use our lives for His sake, we receive life in abundance.
A story from the “Choice Gleanings” calendar illustrates the point. Drifting snow and bitter cold threatened the lives of Indian evangelist Sadhu Sundar Singh and his Tibetan companion as they crossed the Himalayan mountain pass. Fighting the “sleep of death,” they stumbled over a mound in the trail. It was a man, half-dead. The Tibetan refused to stop but continued on alone. The compassionate Sadhu, however, shouldered the burden the best he could. Through his struggling, he began to warm up, as did the unconscious man. But before reaching the village they found the Tibetan—frozen to death.
If we sense an inner void in our lives, maybe we’re clinging to worldly values. We must let go, perhaps risking rejection for witnessing for Christ or cutting back our material security by giving more generously. Only when life’s energies are put into the cause of Christ do we know the joy of being losers who are finders.
Dennis De Haan
via Monticello church of Christ
Monticello, AR