Written by Ann Thiede, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Arkansas
“Then He [Jesus] said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.’” (Lk. 9:23-24 NKJV)
It was my sophomore year in college when everything seemed to be in a neat, tidy package. Good grades, in a prestigious sorority, on the university union board. And I had the freedom to make my own decisions. Self-denial? A foreign concept.
“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures” (Tit. 3:3a NIV) was an accurate description of my self-centered life at the time. Alcohol was my friend and I led others into drinking. And alcohol abuse had a bad way of loosening inhibitions. I desperately wanted approval.
In the middle of a seemingly good life, God interrupted and shook my world upside down. It was a tiny taste of what the Apostle Paul went through when Jesus knocked him off of his “high horse” with a blinding light. (See Acts 9:3-6.) He knocked me off of mine when someone I cared about raised the question of whether or not I was a Christian. I was stunned and upset, but also ignorant. The natural tendency could have been to get defensive. Instead, I chose to seek the truth and began in earnest to read the gospels and listen to Jesus. As a child, a seed of faith had been planted in my heart just waiting for this moment.
His words astounded and drew me! The more I read, the greater the desire to let go of worldly things—to please Him instead of myself. The cursing stopped. Happy hours stopped. I chose to be in my right mind. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Ro. 5:6). How could Jesus love this ungodly woman so much? It was humbling.
But what would my parents say if I made the decision to follow Him heart and soul? My religion had only been dutiful Sunday attendance, which had gone by the wayside. What would my sorority friends say? I decided nothing else mattered but knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior.
I cannot say my parents were thrilled. Mom did not have much of a Bible background and was intimidated by her changed, joyous daughter. They aimed verbal barbs at me from time to time. I wept and prayed and held on to Christ and my new spiritual family, the church. And I found reassurance in these words of Jesus:
“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.” (Mt. 19:29 NKJV)
Some of my close sorority friends were offended when I told them I’d become a Christian. Peter in his first letter said this could happen. “Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you” (1 Pe. 4:4 NLT).
Nothing from my “before Jesus” days compared to “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Php. 3:8 NIV). God called me to Him even in my sinfulness. Losing my life to find it in Jesus has been an amazing journey. Fifty years later, I am still a grateful debtor, more in love with the One who paid my debt.
What have you counted as loss to gain Christ?