What are you willing to sacrifice to climb the ladder of success? Are you willing to put family members to the side for the possibility of a promotion? Are you willing to give up your soul?
If we have been in the corporate world for several years, we have seen someone who has sacrificed a lot to climb the corporate ladder. We have seen families grow apart due to the number of hours per week spent apart. We have seen Dads or Moms who have missed their children’s events.
Many of these same people are sacrificing their souls. They are ignoring God and His plan. They have put the almighty dollar ahead of their eternal life. Have we become one of those people? It can creep up on us without our noticing it. It starts with putting in a few extra hours at work to complete a project. We see larger paychecks. We become addicted to the adrenaline rush of meeting a deadline. Or we become addicted to the comradery of working on a tough problem and the joy of completing it. It’s a slippery slope.
How do we overcome the addiction? As with any addition, we must first acknowledge it. We must become disciplined in spending time with God, including spending time with other Christians, typically on Sunday mornings. We must get our priorities straight.
Jesus poses a straightforward, yet dire question. It is one we likely don’t ask ourselves often enough. We get caught up in this world. We fail to step back to think about the larger picture of our lives. Our desire to succeed in this world overrides our concern for our souls.
Jesus desires us to spend eternity with Him. He knows the results of putting this world ahead of Him. He knows the destruction and torment that awaits us when we choose the world over Him. Our priority needs to be following Him rather than the world.
I pray we all choose Jesus over the world. I pray we take time to think about the larger picture of our lives. I pray each one of us will take up our cross and follow Jesus. Recognize your addiction. Discipline yourself to resist it. Choose Jesus. Follow His plan. Save your soul.
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
Marty Pressey 