When to Lose Your Life

Life Savers…one of America’s favorite candies, especially at Christmastime with their Sweet Storybook filled with many delicious flavors. As a child, I looked forward to receiving a book of the sweet candies in my Christmas stocking.

Clarence Crane invented the Life Saver in 1912 to remedy the fact that chocolate candies turned to soup in the heat. Only five cents was the advertisement enticing children with their limited allowance to make the purchase of pep-o-mint, lic-o-rice, cl-o-ve, or wint-o-green flavored candy.

This fun candy gets its name from its life preserver shape—a light way to use the name of a device that brings the person in peril on the water back to safety.  If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of a life preserver, you know the sense of relief and reassurance it can bring.

Is there ever a time not to try to save one’s life? There is a scripture that says yes:

For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity].  Matthew 16:25

Life here is worth preserving, but it isn’t eternal. Living for the sake of the Gospel and “losing” the trappings that the world offers as counterfeit leads to life everlasting. Remember, whatever we may have to lose in this world for the sake of Christ, we will more than gain back in the riches of eternity.