We are perpetually using ourselves...
Illustration
We are perpetually using ourselves up, always giving ourselves for something. Question: Is that thing worth it for which we give up all we've got? We are certainly putting ourselves out; and there's no way to avoid it. What we get in return: will it last or will it perish? Life is the process of using up our quota of time and energy; and Jesus is letting us know that in this process we can gain the world and lose ourselves, in the end have nothing to show for it.
A 38-year-old loafer, bum, community deadbeat, inherited $2,200 from a relative. With part of that money he bought a quantity of wine, took it to a ramshackle old business place at the south edge of town, sat down on the floor, leaned back against the wall, and started drinking. As his supply diminished, again and again he sent his cronies back to the carry-out for more wine, and they brought it to him.
This fellow never got up from the floor on which he sat. There, in his vomit and his filth, after three days and nights of that, he died. He had used up all there was of life. It was all spent; every precious shekel of its silver and gold -- it was all gone.
They took his body out to the cemetery and buried it in the pauper's corner. And what was left? Nothing that he could take with him. And behind him he left only bruises, scars, abrasions and broken things.
-- Mann
A 38-year-old loafer, bum, community deadbeat, inherited $2,200 from a relative. With part of that money he bought a quantity of wine, took it to a ramshackle old business place at the south edge of town, sat down on the floor, leaned back against the wall, and started drinking. As his supply diminished, again and again he sent his cronies back to the carry-out for more wine, and they brought it to him.
This fellow never got up from the floor on which he sat. There, in his vomit and his filth, after three days and nights of that, he died. He had used up all there was of life. It was all spent; every precious shekel of its silver and gold -- it was all gone.
They took his body out to the cemetery and buried it in the pauper's corner. And what was left? Nothing that he could take with him. And behind him he left only bruises, scars, abrasions and broken things.
-- Mann
