At my community group this past Sunday, I shared that I felt like so much of our time in isolation/social distancing has been spent in survival mode.  We’ve had to adjust, adapt, and persevere through the hardships and stresses of this time.  But I don’t want to simply persevere.  I don’t want to simply endure; I want to thrive.

The problem that I keep running into is that “thriving” is almost always about me.  I want to enjoy being with my friends.  I want to be free to go to the store without all the anxiety and stress that comes with putting on a mask and gloves and trying to stay as far away from people as possible while inside the store.  All of that boils down to me.  My wants.  My desires.  My concept of what the “good/thriving” life looks like.  And honestly, it’s idolatry of the self.

This week’s passage, Mark 9:30-50, gets right at that idolatry.  And the funny thing is that the disciples have already confessed that Jesus is the Messiah.  They believe in Him.  They’re committed to Him.  And yet, the idolatry of self runs deep within them and within us.  Their sinful approach to status, unity, and sin in general couldn’t be left alone as Jesus started His journey to Jerusalem and the cross.  And so Jesus sits them down to teach them about what it means to be His follower, to make explicit the implications of His journey to the Cross.  This Sunday, we’ll be exploring the Gospel implications for these topics, and hopefully, we will be convicted of our sin, assured of a redeeming grace found in Jesus’s finished work on the Cross, and empowered by the Gospel to live as Christ desires us to live.  See you Sunday!