Don't Run from Suffering

You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am


Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. 


Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. 
(Matt 16:24,25, The Message)

Some great examples of how The Message paraphrase strikes with such force sometimes.  "You're not in the driver's seat" an expression with which we are all too familiar.  The one in the driver's seat is the one in control. Christ is in control.  We are not.

What it is normal to do:  Run from suffering.  What Christ calls us to do:  Embrace suffering, after all, he has shown us what it means to live a life of suffering.  We are merely called to emulate him.

Don't listen to the "wisdom" of the world that tells you that you need to love and improve yourself; that there is no higher virtue than self-esteem.  Christ calls you to the opposite:  Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.  And so it is.

The Christian life is a radically different life than what the world finds acceptable.