DENIAL OF THE DOOMED

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”. 

This is a quote of Jim Elliot, missionary and martyr to the Quichua Indians of Ecuador. Passionate about spreading the word of God, heeding God’s call to spread the gospel to this unreached tribe, Jim and his team were able to establish contact with the tribe. However on their return in 1956, the team was massacred by a group of warriors who misread their intentions.

Jesus’ words in Mark 8 come to mind,

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life^[b] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? (v. 34-36)

It is natural for man to seek comfort and prosperity. And an extension of that natural inclination is seen within Christianity. Those who follow Christ expect Him to be the avenue to make that happen. Our churches are filled with the sentiment of expectation- not necessarily of eternal gifts or the salvation of souls, rather one of receiving more and more of the earthly treasures that man generally seeks after.

Yet, the call of Christ is not one of embracing abundance, rather that of denial, suffering and loss. And this denial begins on the external aspect of our lives, where in the physical realm, God asks a disciple to give up treasures, comfort, sensual delights and earthly security as he chooses to walk with the Lord. As this walk progresses, however, the attitude of denial begins to permeate the inward aspects of a man’s soul. Man’s greatest treasure is not his accumulated wealth, but his self inflated ‘I’- his fierce independence from God, that makes him a master of his own soul. He does what he wants and thinks and acts independently- a trait that may be celebrated in society, but one that is an aberration from God’s original design, where He created man to live in communion, submission and partnership with his creator God. As hard as denial is for the external aspects of one’s life, denial of the ‘I’ is unbearably painful. Yet as man treads along this path, God’s life and light come alive within him. He begins to see glimpses of union with God and begins to experience the immeasurably priceless gift of experiencing God.

As we live our lives out, it is hard to comprehend that when Jesus calls us to espouse the attitude of denial, we are only denying that which is doomed.

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