To Deny Oneself

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8:34)

Deny myself. For someone like me, that is nearly impossible to do. I live on dreams, and thrive on ambition, and I feed on expectations. To give up everything to pursue after His heart means that I have to give up running after things that the world has socialized me into desiring. But does that mean that everything left to run after is boring, without reward, and passionless?

I may not be inclined to do evangelism, but there are many other things that I could possibly find exciting and still do it! The one that attracts me most is this:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

That's something meaningful! To look after the helpless and ensure that they are fed, clothed, and have a future. One reason why God directed me to do Sociology was because the subject allowed me to take a close look into the process of marginalization, to study the workings of society and to see the inherent obstacles faced by good Samaritans.

Also, I may not have money, but I have ideas and I can motivate. God has provided me with an opportunity to be educated with certain mindsets and perspectives that I can contribute.

Question is, are we willing to die for something good, pure and true but brings no benefit to us at all?


It is by answering this question that those of us with a conscience, I believe, will come to realize that living for oneself is living for nothing at all. The revelation in the Bible will then demonstrate as clear as day, that somewhere deep within, we were hard-wired to live for something greater than our imaginations can ever conjure and our minds can ever comprehend.






If there is nothing in this world other than yourself that you would die for, than maybe you haven't truly lived. -Valentino Casanova