Lose Life to Save It

In Matthew 16:25 Jesus made the strange-sounding statement that “whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” It is counter-intuitive to our natural instincts. We do a lot to preserve our lives. How can Jesus ask us to give up our lives for his sake? Each of us actually has two lives and this riddle speaks of both. Jesus asks us to willingly lose this temporal life. In so doing we gain eternal life. He did not ask us to commit suicide, but give up our self-centered ways, take up our crosses of self-sacrifice and follow him.