Hate Your Life

And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” John 12:23-26

I haven’t planned out what this post is going to look like from beginning to end. I believe that God is leading me in a direction and I am seeking to be obedient. Lamp to my feet, light to my path; I’m taking this one step at a time.

Do you hate your life in this world? I bought a wall hanging a few years back that said, “Be in love with your life.” I meant for it to remind me to be thankful for the life God has given me. What it should say is, “Be in love with your God.” It’s no secret that we are inundated with the message, “Do what you love.” “Life is too short to be unhappy.” “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.” “Be in love with yourself.” …and the list goes on. It sounds good, right? But like Shift in C.S. Lewis’s The Last Battle, “By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger.”

The world is telling us, “The fear of self is the beginning of wisdom.” God tells us in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” We are to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2). Paul tells us in Romans 12, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”

A Bible study leader once shared this thought: when we fear another person, care what they think, want what they have, we are saying that we care more about ourselves or about the things they have than we do about them.

In the last 10 years, we have completely detached ourselves from mainstream media. Some might accuse us of having our heads in the sand. Rather, we say that we much prefer being uninformed to being misinformed. While this hasn’t changed, we have become aware of current events that negatively affect our families and generations to come. Thus far, our position has been to do what we believe is right and if people ask questions or are interested, we are willing to share. We have believed this to be sufficient, until now.

I referenced C.S. Lewis’s book, The Last Battle, above. I finished reading this book for the first time two nights ago. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been wrestling with how to face these threats to our families. Continue to live our life and speak when spoken to? Take to social media? Seek out personal conversations with people in our circle? What if it puts a target on my family? I can’t risk the safety of my children. As these thoughts rolled around in my head, my eldest and I began reading The Last Battle.

Without retelling the whole story, the Narnians have been fooled into believing that a donkey dressed in a lion’s skin is Aslan. Shift the Ape is his puppeteer and is in cahoots with the Calormenes to take over Narnia. The Narnians are helping to accomplish this evil plot against them by obeying who they wrongly believe to be Aslan. The lone seven who know (and believe) the truth, King Tirian, Jewel the Unicorn, Jill, Eustace, Puzzle the Donkey, Poggin the Dwarf, and Farsight the Eagle have just learned that Cair Paravel has been taken by the Calormenes. They have already tried to convince the Dwarfs of the truth by showing them Puzzle the Donkey, dressed in the lion skin. Aside from Poggin, they don’t want any part of it.

“We’re on our own now. No more Aslan, no more Kings, no more silly stories about other worlds. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs,” they said.

Now, the seven stand alone and must decide what to do. After a long silence, Jewel speaks up.

“Nothing now remains for us seven but to go back to Stable Hill, proclaim the truth, and take the adventure that Aslan sends us.”

Jill and Eustace, who have been sent to Narnia from England, consider what will happen to them if they die in Narnia. Jill concludes, “I was going to say I wished we’d never come. But I don’t, I don’t, I don’t. Even if we are killed. I’d rather be killed fighting for Narnia than grow old and stupid at home and perhaps go about in a bath-chair and then die in the end just the same.”

As I finished reading this tale, God also gave me Luke 9:23-24. “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.’”

As I considered this story and Jesus’s words, I realized that if God is calling us to stand up for truth, then we must. We must. And to not do so for fear of our children’s safety, we are doing two things: (1) not trusting God with them and (2) putting the battle in their hands and the hands of future generations.

In the end, the seven suffered death in Narnia. But they were immediately with Aslan in the true Narnia. The real Narnia.

Amidst the fight, Tirian told Jill: “But courage, child: we are all between the paws of the true Aslan.” They believed that Narnia was worth fighting for. They hated their life in this world.

Why do I tell you all of this?

Because I want us to hate our lives. I want us to fight for truth. I want us to quit being offended when someone disagrees with us. I want us to be willing to be wrong so that we can learn better and do better. I want us to love the people around us more than we care what they think about us. I want us to stop self-preserving. Stop being afraid. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28

Seek truth. Speak truth.