"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39)
Recently I've been pondering this statement from Jesus. What did He mean by "finding" our lives, and "losing" them? Was it meant merely to be taken literally--a call to give up our physical lives--to die for the faith? If that is the case, the implication would be that "finding" our lives (in essence, "keeping" them by staying alive) is wrong, or even sinful! No, while such martyrdom is sometimes the Lord's will--and a powerful witness when it occurs--it does not make good exegetical sense to conclude that is what the Lord meant by the statement.
This is one of those concepts I refer to as a "Sunday School Answer"--a statement or fact that church-attenders give mental assent to as being "the correct answer." We acknowledge that God's plans for our lives are best, and that we can trust Him to lead us well...but when it comes to actually surrendering ourselves to that, actual willingness to lay aside our own plans and preferences, actually asking Him, "Lord, what do You want for me?" well, that's a lot harder. But that is exactly what "losing my life" for His sake actually entails: Laying all of my hopes, dreams, goals, and intentions before Him, and allowing Him to have His way; placing before Him all of my preferences, perspectives, and plans, and asking Him to guide me in the way He wants me to go.
I think it's because, so often, our "rights" get in the way. After all...we've been endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, right? In our Western world-view and way of thinking, our rights are...well, right. Life...liberty...the pursuit of happiness. What could God possibly want for my life, if not for me to have life? To have liberty? To be happy? What indeed?
In mine and my family's lives this has looked like variety of things, over the years: Changes of jobs or careers; changes of homes or cities; a change of countries and languages; changes in college majors; changes in plans; and often, along with so many changes, no clear idea of what to expect until we "got there."
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