Who Has Your Life?

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

My husband and I watched Act of Valor last night. Wow! What a movie. It is a film about  an elite team of Navy Seals, whom embark on a covert mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent. Without revealing too much about the movie, there is a powerful scene where a Lieutenant literally lays down on a grenade to save his fellow comrades. He literally throws himself on top of it, and loses his very own life at the chance another might live. This man was on a promising course, living a very blessed life. He had a wonderful wife and unborn child waiting for him to return home safely. But, his honor would not allow him to place his own life above the lives of his men. He had a responsibility and chose not to lose even one of his men. He lived out the very character of Christ. 
Before Jesus was crucified, and freely gave up his own life, so that we could live he prayed this prayer for us, his disciples:

'I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were 
 yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.'

This is how we must live - by laying down our lives for our friends. And it is easy to do when you recognize these simple truths - a)Life on earth is temporary and it is not our own  b)Our life has been bought by Christ and because of Him, it is eternal. The Lieutenant in the movie knew that this life was only temporary. This life and all this world offers really isn't true living at all. We must run this race with one prize in mind - spending eternity with Jesus. He is the only one worthy. Losing our life in Him is the only way we will ever really find it. 

In Matthew 10:39, Jesus spoke these words...
"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."