Growing up I had two older brothers.  Given the years between our ages we didn’t play together as much as we simply antagonized each other!  “Pushing each other’s buttons” as it were!  When one’s prized possession might be found unattended, the other would grab it and gleefully sing, “Finders keepers; losers weepers!”  And then the perp would run like the wind to get away! 

This memory was recalled this past Sunday in church when I read in my Worship Folder the sermon title: “Losers Finders…Keepers Weepers.”  Hmmm.  Pastor got this twisted, I thought.  Then, I read it again.  Nope! That’s what it said.  But it’s “finders keepers, losers weepers.”  Everyone knows that.  What’s he thinking?

The text for the message was Matthew’s gospel, chapter 16, verses 24 and 25:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Luke writes this in his gospel, chapter 9, verses 23 and 24:

            And He said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Luke adds the word, “daily.”  I like that because I need to be reminded each day.  I must choose to follow Jesus daily!  And this one is hanging on my bulletin board by author Elisabeth Elliot:

            “Just pull yourself up by the grace of God, hoist your cross on your shoulder, and follow your Savior down the blood-stained path to Calvary…and don’t complain about it!”  

In Dietrich Bohhoeffer’s book Cost of Discipleship he says “To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more of the road which is too hard for us….If in the end we know only of him, if we have ceased to notice the pain of our own cross, we are indeed looking only unto him.”  In other words, if we feel any pain in daily carrying our cross, we have not reached the place of complete self-denial.  Wow.  I have so very far to go….

In my library I have a small book entitled The Valley of Vision.  I recommend it to all of you.  It is a collection of Puritan prayers.  The opening one is entitled The Valley of Vision. 

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,

Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox…

That the way down is the way up,

That to be low is to be high,

That the broken heart is the healed heart,

That the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,

That the repenting soul is the victorious soul,

That to have nothing is to possess all,

That to bear the cross is to wear the crown,

That to give is to receive,

That the valley is the place of vision.

Remember – Losers finders…Keepers weepers.

Bill Erickson