“If any man has a mind to come my way, let him renounce self, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.  He who tries to save his life will lose it; it is the man who loses his life for my sake, that will save it.”   Luke 9:23-24
 
Lord,
Do you have to talk in riddles?
I mean this bit about a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die or else it abides alone, or that line about a man losing his life in order to find it, are a little much.  How do you expect to convert the world if you can’t make more sense than that?
Besides I thought You were the ultimate sacrifice.
Why do we have to die?  How does abundant life fit into all of this?
 
My son,
I was the sacrifice for your sins.  That work is finished, there’s nothing more you can do.
I bore my cross, lost my life, to save you from your sins.
When you take up your cross and follow me
it is to save yourself from emptiness, from meaninglessness.
The only life worth living is one which believes
in something enough to die for it!
 
Lord,
I get it.  Your cross saves us from sin! 
Our cross saves us from our selfish selves.
I’ve had moments like that,
moments when I lost myself in service to others,
and discovered an aliveness
no self-serving accomplishment can ever match.
Help me to live that way.
My cross bearing a way of life
rather than scattered moments in a selfish life.