Dying to Live

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." - John 12.24

Not only is this true but it is VERY true ... truly, no REALLY TRULY ... Jesus said.  Strangely enough this "truly" truth has been coming to my mind repeatedly over the last few days. Dying to gain life.

Miriam Rockness posted about this same topic on her blog about Lilias Trotter. Through the death of the seed comes the promised fruit of life. Lilias wrote,  "'Death is the gate of life.'  Does it look so to us?  Have we learnt to go down, once and again, into its gathering shadow in quietness and confidence, knowing that there is always 'a better resurrection' beyond?" - Parables of the Cross
I sat with that thought for some time before reading the rest of the post. ... Have we learnt to go down, once and again, into death's gathering shadow in quietness and confidence, knowing there is always "a better resurrection" beyond? 

Jesus went to the cross once for all time. He went down to death's shadow ... in quietness and confidence, knowing the resurrection beyond was infinitely better! He did this that one time on the cross ... on the hill called Golgotha (the place of the skull - death!) outside of Jerusalem (city of peace - shalom). He did this for us. He did this so that we could know with confidence that through death comes life. Through dying to self comes shalom ... that which is infinitely better! We reap the fruit of Jesus' death. We reap life ... infinitely better life ... from death. But, in order to do so we must die to self ... once and again ... with confidence so that we may reap the fruit of peace - shalom, well-being.

Our journey of Lent draws near to the cross ... to death, death of all that we have struggled against and with on this journey. As we walk through this week, let us do so in quietness and confidence, knowing there is better resurrection coming ... resurrection to life!