WITH JESUS YOU ARE 'FREE TO LOSE'

FREE TO LOSE: WITH CHRIST YOU'RE IMMUNE FROM WHAT OTHERS THINK AND OFF 'TREADMILL' OF LIFE

Want to get off the treadmill? Tired of the "rat race"? Exhausted from going "nowhere"? Well, then, get off; all it takes is refocusing on Jesus.

In Christ -- in the Gospels -- we don't have to compete. We're "free to lose." You heard that right: sounds almost unAmerican, doesn't it? It certainly seems counterintuitive (especially when we are surrounded by prosperity ministries).

But here's the point: when we are founded in Jesus -- truly founded -- we don't care what the world thinks of us. We don't need anything but what He provides. With Him, we have standing. We have dignity. We have security. We have peace. We have enrichment of the spiritual kind. We are free when we empty ourselves of "self" and fill it with Spirit. Lose yourself in Him. When you go with the flow of Jesus, you don't need directions.

The world wants you "winning." It has you straining and gunning and killing yourself to be "successful" by its standards (the standards of materialism) and the result is incredible because not only is it impossible for most to attain all the material riches they want (to be "worth" millions), but even those who do fight their way to monetary "success" find that it brings more pain than anything.

Look at how many rich people and celebrities have trouble putting a smile on their faces. Look at even actors who are nearly billionaires or prominent politicians or "star" athletes and how -- unfulfilled -- they resort to bizarre personal lives. Look at the expression we often use for someone with money: "He has done well for himself." (Key word: self.)

One recent "celebrity" thinks he is "winning" because he has a luxury home, great cars, girlfriends who star in pornographic movies, millions with which to buy drugs (and liquor). Of course, he also has two ex-wives, countless alienated friends, distressed relatives, and children who had to be taken from him.

We look at celebrities destroying their families. How many others do the same -- trying to be celebrated?

"My son, says our Savior Christ, you will not take it to my heart, though some people think or say of you evil that you would gladly not hear, for you will think even worse of yourself, and that no man is as evil as you," the Lord said in The Imitation of Christ. "If you are well-ordered in your soul, you will not care much for such flying words. It is no little wisdom for a man to keep himself in silence and in good peace when evil words are spoken to him, and to turn his heart to God and not to be troubled with man's judgment.

"Do not let your peace depend on the hearts of men; whatever they say about you, good or bad, you are not because of it another man, for as you are, you are. Where is true peace and glory? Is it not in Me? Yes, truly. Therefore, he who neither desires to please men nor fears to displease them will have great plenty of peace; for all disquiet of heart and restlessness of mind come from inordinate love and groundless fear."

In the Lord you are free. The truth sets you free. Jesus is "the Truth and the Light." The abundance He gives is real abundance -- sometimes in the way of the material, yes, but mainly in the richness of our inner lives, where the treasures of Heaven are calculated. Christ said He gives life and life more abundantly but He never referred -- not once -- to granting material riches.

Are you free? If not, what are you bound to? Whom are you bound to? What system of belief -- what aspirations -- have you in bondage? These are meditations.

Incredible it is, how we consider health and life insurance so crucial but do nothing to insure our inner, eternal well-being -- our afterlife insurance!

And go for peace now -- by realizing that in Jesus we are free to lose everything we have, that we can lose everything that impresses the world, that we no longer have to enter a room and impress anyone, that it doesn't matter what the worldly think of us.

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[Further note: “Dear children, today more than ever I desire to call you to prayer," is a recent message from Medjugorje. "Dear children, Satan wants to destroy today’s families, therefore I desire to call you to a renewal of family prayer. Pray, dear children, in your families with your children, do not permit access to Satan. Thank you, dear children, for also today responding to my call.” Respond to her call and be liberated -- in the right way.]