Matthew 16:25, HCSB
I've been reading C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain recently and Lewis, on several occasions, suggests that we are most truly ourselves when we surrender to God and serve in the role for which He designed us. The process is, of course, a painful one. Denying one's selfish impulses can hardly be anything else. But the pain is, of course, worth it.
In faithfully pursuing Christ, we discover our true "shape" and our real purpose in this life. Clinging to our lives--our purposes, our plans, our "stuff"--leads inevitably to sorrow and loss. "Losing" or surrendering our lives inevitably leads to finding the true purpose and life for which we were created. I will not make light of the difficulty of the process and would like to emphasize that such surrender is a life-long process rather than a one-time decision, but the results are clearly worth such difficulties.
