Getting Wrecked by and for God—for GoodSample

Losing Your Religion

“Lose your life! Pick up your cross! Die daily!”

Lies.

What? These are words spoken by Jesus.

Yes, and these are words misspoken by religious zealots through the years, twisting what Jesus meant. Religion demands that we sacrifice—sacrifice ourselves and our lives. It is true, Jesus said to pick up our cross and lose our life. These words have pounded in my aching head and ripped against my weary heart. Sometimes they were shouted by angry preachers. Sometimes they echoed off the pages of dead authors. These words haunted me. I wanted to be a good disciple of Jesus. I tried hard to lose my life. I did my share of dying via the disciplines. Yet I failed to truly die.

Do I believe disciples should forsake the disciplines? No. Jesus was a man of discipline and modeled this for His followers. Likewise I have learned from many disciplined people and their honest accounts of trying to get on the altar, carry their cross, crucify the flesh, and practice fasting, praying and reading the Bible. I have also learned that dying to self can make me more miserable, callous, and ultimately the most cynical religious robot. I never want to join these ranks. But I almost did. I was snared by religion. I was caught in the trap of crucifying my own self via my own self-effort. How ironic!

I have observed this same snare in others because we are DIY (do-it-yourself) people. Think about all those HGTV shows that display such amazing renovation results—all accomplished in sixty minutes or less. Somehow that DIY mindset creeps into our relationship with God. In my attempts to “do it myself,” I missed the irony of all my attempts to get rid of self. I was trying hard to lose the very self that was producing all the self-effort to lose myself.

In my attempts to lose myself, I almost lost my mind. Worse, I almost lost my faith. I was burned out on religion.

I did not need to lose my life, and I certainly did not need to lose my mind or my faith. I needed to lose my religion instead. Thank God, l lost my religion and found Jesus. Jesus is good at showing us how to lose our religion. He did not come to start a new religion. He came to give us life. Abundant life. Let’s explore what this looks like.

Ponder: How have you tried to “lose your life”? What are the results?

Prayer: Thank You for losing Your life that I may find mine. Today, show me how to embrace who I am in You—a righteous, much-loved and accepted son or daughter.