Just as I am reminding myself not to be attached to the things in this world (since we can't take them with us when we go) my iPhone gets wet and dies.. losing my pictures and notes (my notes are pretty stinkin meaningful to me).
So I'm bummed.. but like I told my parents.. "Its okay that I lost all my bible notes.. cause in Heaven, I'll just live the bible!"
I like that..
I can't wait for Heaven.. sometimes I get Homesick for Heaven.
I just finished reading Heaven is For Real about a four year old boy who has an emergency appendectomy (like Madeline!) and in the months and years that followed he shares more and more details about his trip to Heaven and back.
Its a fantastic book and I don't doubt one single line of it, its all true! (If you read it, which I recommend you do, there are millions of things that prove that the boy couldn't possibly be making it up. Even his own parents doubt him at first but over time he proves he experienced Heaven first hand!)
I could go on and on about how ridiculously good the book was, but you'll just have to read it for yourself. This blog is about losing yourself. Ha!
Things in this world that promise happiness...... :
Fame&Fortune
Attraction: You're rich, everyone loves you, and you're always in the spotlight.
Reality: You've got a bunch of stuff you don't even use, you question which friends actually care about you, you're sick of people knowing everything about you.
Getting high and/or drunk
Attraction: You're on cloud 9, suddenly you're the life of the party, and you've never been happier.
Reality: Your highs don't last that long, your body starts to look like crap, the more you do it, the more you do it, and you feel like shit.
P.S. There's no weed in Heaven, and I'm not sure about Hell, but I'm pretty sure they don't budget for that.
STUFF.
Attraction: You've got the latest and greatest everything, 4G, touch screen, Netflix, Twitter, you name it. Not to mention the new 7 series, life doesn't get any better.
Reality: Stuff breaks, payments are more than paychecks, they just came out with the new one and you're out of the loop.
P.S., when it comes down to it, REAL friends don't care what kind of stuff you have. If they do, they probably don't care about YOU.
When Jesus said, "take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow me" He didn't mean.. "Sell your house, trade in your car for an arc, make sure you pack your phone charger" ... NO. He literally meant,"leave EVERYTHING behind, and follow Me. Deny everything you have known in this world, so that I can give you everything that you can have in My world, in the Kingdom of God!"
Just after Jesus says this in Matthew 16, He goes on to say "For whoever will save his life shall lose it: and whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Basically.. If you try to save yourself, you'll sink. But if you throw your hands up and admit you can't do it alone, and let Jesus take the wheel, (thank you Carrie Underwood) then He'll save your life FOR you, no work involved.
What are you going to gain if you buy everything in this world, and you're super full with your phone, computer, stereo, house, iPod, cars, boats, etc. and there is no more room for your own SOUL? Then what? Would you really rather have all of these things than an actual soul? The dictionary defines a soul as "a person's total self; the essence of a person; the actuality of a being."
So wouldn't that technically mean that if you lose your soul.. you are.. nothing, non-existent.. a waste of oxygen?
On the flip side, if you give up all these things that we THINK make us whole, and give it all to Jesus, then we can actually be whole, full, content. What is worth trading your soul for? And after you trade your soul, do you wish you hadn't? Think about The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe. He physically traded with Satan--his soul for money. Satan is always going to be quicker than you, OBVIOUSLY he wouldn't make a deal if he didn't have some way of profiting from it!
Jesus however, is the opposite. He gave His life, so we could be rich. Does that mean you have a sack of gold in your hand? No. That means you have a sack of GOD in your hand. He will equip us with everything we need in order to follow Him, completely world-free. If we put down our possessions, take up our cross, and follow Jesus, then by the time we get to Heaven.... We'll have the iPhone77... S. Does it get any better than that?(: