As we address Soren Kierkegaard’s observations about “losing one’s self,” I believe we must address this two-fold. The first is how we can lose ourselves in the madness and chaos of everyday life. Our ministry has licensed counselors, ordained ministers, and experienced clergy who pray for people dealing with the struggles of life. The second is the paradox of the gospel of Christ that teaches us to lose ourselves for the sake of the Kingdom.

Losing ourselves in the chaotic cacophony of life is a danger most everyone faces every day. The pressures of performance-based worldly demands do not just compel us to muster our will to persevere, it instills a deep-rooted pride of standing on our own two feet. These demands create a false gospel that the enemy loves to distort in our hearts, and it is a setup for us to ultimately fail.

Too many times, do people fall short of goals and cave under the load of external expectations. This can cause us to fall into despair or embolden our own will further. The worst-case scenario is when we abandon a God that never answered prayers from an unrepentant heart. So, we lose ourselves, we give ourselves over to the pride of life, and “Soldier on.”

Let me be clear that I have a heart for anyone who musters the strength to stand against an enemy that would see them ground to dust, and live out a miserable life. This reminds me of the poem: “Do not go Gentle into that Goodnight.” I have been here, not knowing the goodness of my God, doing all I can to be faithful to a God that brought me out of a dark pit of life.

“Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning, they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” -Dylan Thomas

This is where the paradox of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven comes in. When we get lost in life, many have come to the end of ourselves only to be found by a God who created us and loves us. In the book of Matthew, Jesus taught us, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

I believe Kierkegaard learned this, as I and many others have. There is a righteous road to the Lord’s rest. We learn that Christ’s body was given as a sacrifice for our sins, and His blood was poured out to wash those sins away. Like the words Jesus was writing on the ground in the story about the adulteress, they have been wiped away with no record of wrong.

When we lose ourselves and sacrifice our prideful desires, we can properly abide in the true Vine, Jesus Christ. If He was willing to be the sacrifice for our sins, then He is worthy of us to lose ourselves in Him, for Him, and with Him. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Be Blessed!