No Life?

Matthew 16:24-26
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Have you the feeling that everyone is trying their very best to sap time and energy away from you? The responsibilities and expectations that world throws at you, frowning at every instance you fail to be your ideal self. The expectations of good grades, of being a good friend, of being a good neighbour, of being a good child. Do they exhaust you?

Someone passed a comment that got me thinking, "You've got no life eh? You spend Monday to Friday studying and Saturday and Sunday in Church?" What is exactly is life? Mindless partying? Indulging in endless pleasures? Perhaps.

Perhaps not. How about the notion that loving the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving my neighbour as myself is the life? No, the expectations of the 'ideal me' do not exhaust me. They are the life. This is the life.

Easier said than done. God give me the strength to match 'supposed to be' and 'reality'.