“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 10:39)
A WELL-KNOWN ACTOR AND FILMMAKER had a live-in arrangement with an actress. Between them, this unmarried couple had an assortment of children from previous marriages and adoptions. The actor served as a father figure to their brood until he had an affair with one of the teenage children. When a reporter asked why he would do such a thing, he answered, “The heart wants what the heart wants.” In other words, self reigns triumphantly. The only important thing, according to that philosophy, is what I want.
Charles Swindoll sees family obligations differently. “What does the Lord do to help broaden my horizons and assist me in seeing how selfish I am?” he asks. Then he answers his own question: “He gives me four busy kids who step on shoes, wrinkle clothes, spill milk, lick car windows, and drop sticky candy on the carpet.” One wants what one wants, but Swindoll and other sincere Christians believe we must be “willing to forego our own comfort, our own preferences, our own schedule, our own desires for another’s benefit. And that brings us back to Christ.”*
God calls us to “look not only to [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4). When you find yourself jammed into that great test tube called family, be willing to lose your life for the sake of others.
Determine to think not only of yourself but others today.
Ron McClung serves as assistant general secretary for The Wesleyan Church and lives in Fishers, Indiana, with his wife, Carol. They have two sons, nine grandchildren, and two great-granddaughters.
© 2018 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
*Charles Swindoll, Laugh Again (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992), 84.
