I do a lot of funerals. Part of it goes with the job, since I’m a pastor. But M. L. Ford & Sons Funeral Service near my home calls me when there is a death but the family has no pastor. It happens more often than you would think. So, I
get to talk about death a lot — an occupational hazard, I suppose.
Most all of us hate the thought of having to die someday. That’s why we get a physical, isn’t it? That’s why some people know a cardiologist by his first name. It’s why you’re on a diet. It’s why you’re taking vitamins, and it’s why you get on that silly treadmill. I believe it describes everyone of us.
But the sad truth is, we all die someday. Even doctors die. Even surgeons die. Even vitamin fanatics die. Nutritional experts die. Everyone wants to save his/her life, yet everyone loses it.
However, the best answer to this dilemma I’ve ever found is something that 
Jesus said. Think about this for a minute. Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” That’s really an amazing statement, but it truly brings me great comfort, and I hope it does you, too.
Everyone who wants to save their life (and that’s all of us) will lose it. But everyone who loses their life — whatever life is to you — whoever experiences a death in this life, around something related to Jesus or his gospel, whoever says no to themselves, will gain life. Will save it.
You have the opportunity to lose what you’re going to lose anyway, for the sake of something that can’t be taken away from you later. It really is, for all of us, the opportunity of a lifetime.
