The Narrow Road Leads Us to True Life
That's why we need to see ourselves and the world around us through God's eyes. Jesus gave us the real deal when He called the crowd and His disciples together one day and said:
“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:34-37).
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I don't want to sound too harsh here, but we have to face the fact that many men are living life at the animal level. I say that because an animal lives for three purposes: self-preservation, self-propagation, and self-gratification. It's tragic when men who have been made in the image of God with the capacity to know, love, and serve Him seek fulfillment in the stuff of the world that is passing away.
Certainly, I know many men who are very successful and prosperous who are also faithful, committed servants of Jesus Christ. What I'm saying is that we cannot make life's crucial decisions based on our wants and ambitions, because Jesus Christ measures life by a different standard, and He is calling us to a different pursuit.
The Narrow Road Leads to True Victory
Did you notice the save/lose, gain/lose language Jesus used in Mark 8? This is terminology men can identify with, because we are all about winning. God has placed within us a strong drive to provide for, protect, and prove ourselves, and now that we don't have to hunt for our daily food, we seek other outlets for our natural aggressiveness.
Women often complain that we can't do anything without turning it into a competition, and they're probably right. We love to test ourselves, particularly against other men, and we love to win.
But since we were created first and foremost for intimate fellowship with God, we can never be completely satisfied with temporal, temporary victories. There are legions of men who have gained what they went after, but after they got it their victory turned hollow, and now they're wondering what life is all about. These men heard all their lives how they needed to get ahead, and they did. But after they reached the top of the ladder, they looked around and asked, "Is this all there is?"
One of the great statements of this syndrome was made by Muhammad Ali after he had been retired from boxing for some time. His family had splintered, and he was beginning to have the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Ali said, "I had the world, and it wasn't nuthin'."