And [Jesus] said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” Luke 9:22-24
“Our hearts can only know one ruler. Our lives can only follow one leader. Our passions can only focus on one object. Our allegiance can only fall to one Lord. Our choice to follow one ruler means absolute rejection of all alternatives. The object of our love requires us to forsake all others. It’s not who you are leading, but who is leading you that matters!
Commitment to one path and one leader means leaving every other possible route behind. Committing our lives in one direction means absolute death to all other competing possibilities. I know we wish this weren’t so. We wish we could keep our options open, play the field, and explore all possibilities without closing the door on any of them. But in our spiritual lives, a vacillating loyalty is a choice for self-indulgence over the walk of faith.
What is at stake in this decision is the gift of true intimacy with God. It is only when we deny all of the selfish alternatives that we find the life that is lived in the presence and bright countenance of the God who created us for Himself. If we want to know the joy of that life, we have to die to the life that is focused on the self. And out of this death comes freedom, certainty, and the peace of God that passes all understanding.”
R. Scott Rodin in Steward Leader Meditations: Fifty Devotions for the Leadership Journey (Colbert: KLP, 2016) 70. If you are looking for a devotional linked to stewardship leadership, check this one out by my friend, Scott!
This particular excerpt from a meditation struck me because the words “vacillating loyalty” describe what I see in the world today.
In business, people vacillate toward deals or decisions that benefit themselves. In politics, voters vacillate toward candidates and platforms that promise to preserve their way of life. In ministry, congregants vacillate toward churches that meet their needs and organizations that advance the causes they think are most important. At the core, these tendencies reveal our self-centeredness.
What’s all this got to do with generosity? Only those who lose their life will find it. Only those who let go of that which they do not own will take hold of that which money can’t buy. As Scott puts it: the gift of true intimacy with God.