comment
Today’s Gospel has Jesus expressing some pretty strong words for Peter. When Peter challenges what Jesus is telling the disciples about his death and resurrection, Jesus tells him that he thinks like a human and not like God. “Get behind me, Satan” is so strong it’s easy to see that it’s not a good thing. One has to wonder – how can we humans ever think like God does?
One clue is to consider losing vs. saving our lives. If we can lose our human way of seeing the world – give up our worldly expectations – maybe we can train ourselves to think differently and be open to what God wants. If we can think more like God, maybe we can embrace the crosses we need to bear more readily, or respond more quickly to the needs of others.
We may already be struggling with our daily prayer routine. We may not have time to join a Bible study, or catch an inspirational video or podcast. Any of these might help save ourselves from our limited and often selfish human ways of thinking. While there are many options for learning more about the mind of Jesus in our connected world, our time is still limited. What part of our lives could we lose in order to save the parts that need to be more Christ-like?