Wednesday July 1st: What Am I Willing to Lose

They pleaded with him to leave

Matthew 8:28–34

I couldn’t stop thinking about the pigs.

Not because I felt sorry for them, but because I wondered why the townspeople couldn’t see the miracle standing before them. Two broken men had been restored. Their lives had been transformed by Jesus. Yet instead of rejoicing, the people focused on what they had lost.

Shamefully, I can relate.

Sometimes I pray for God to change my life but  am I willing to lose my comfort, my time, my pride or my plans if that’s what it takes? I often try to hold on to the very things I need to let go off. The people measured the cost of the pigs. Jesus measured the value of two souls.

Perhaps that is the challenge of today’s Gospel. We can become so attached to what we have that we fail to see what God is doing.

Today, I pray for the courage to hold my possessions, my ambitions and even my comfort loosely, trusting that nothing I surrender to Jesus is ever greater than the life He can transform.