"Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." (Luke 17:33) "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." (John 12:25)

Car inspection stickers used to have printed on the back "Drive carefully -- the life you save may be your own." That is the wisdom of men in a nutshell. What God says, on the other hand, is "The life you save is the life you lose." In other words, the life you clutch, hoard, guard, and play safe with is in the end a life worth little to anybody, including yourself; and only a life given away for love's sake is a life worth living. To bring his point home, God shows us a man who gave his life away to the extent of dying a national disgrace without a penny in the bank or a friend to his name. In terms of men's wisdom, he was a perfect fool, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without making something like the same kind of fool of himself is laboring under, not a cross, but a delusion. (From Frederick Buechner)