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 9:23-24)
The way to transformation is never trying to “save” or improve your life, it is losing your life for me. Understand that this is different than mere asceticism, for a person can lose their life for many reasons: to gain power or success also requires a kind of denying of self, but when you are determined to lose your life out of love for me, then you begin to discover the depth of what life is really about. To deny yourself for me means that you are choosing my ways over your ways; to take up your cross daily for me means to embrace the universal fact that a grain of wheat must die before it can produce much fruit. This concept must be at the core of making disciples, otherwise Christianity will always default to the ways of religion: denying self to appease your god and taking up your cross in only a symbolic religious manner. It’s important to understand, when making disciples, to recognize that those who are coming to Jesus to improve their life are not those who want to be my disciples. I love and accept every person who comes to me, but I accept as a disciple only those who are willing to deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
— July 7, 2020