loser: part 3

I have a picture of a Giant Sequoia tree on my computer desktop. One of the highlights of my choir trip to California in college was standing beside these trees that towered hundreds of feet into the air. Did you know this tree had to lose something? As a seed in a cone, it had to lose everything. It went from sitting high up in a majestic tree to falling and being covered by dirt. It had to stay there, in the dirt and refuse of the forest for some time before an amazing change began to take place. It went from being a seed in a prickly cone to a delicate little tree. With each year, it continued to grow, until it reached over 300 feet!



The Giant Sequoia is a beautiful picture of the Christian life. Where are you right now? Are you the seed still sitting in the cone high up in a tree, afraid to lose whatever you hold dear? Are you down in the dirt, feeling as though you’ve lost your very life? Are you beginning to see signs of new growth? Wherever you may be, allow yourself to be a loser. Elisabeth Elliot is a woman who lost much in her life. Both she and her husband, Jim, were willing to lose it all for Jesus. Jim lost his life in the jungles of Ecuador as a missionary. Here is what Elisabeth has to say about loss:

“There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops. If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul…The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to lose, ours to let go of – if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are set on glory.”