The surprising truth is that we can be completely wrong in our search.
We may be holding fast to the very things that are dragging us down.
We may be perfectly willing to let the one needful thing slip out of our grasp.

Or our desire for things to remain the same as they have always been
can be the obstacle which prevents them from becoming the best they could possibly be.

Look at Peter.
Peter is standing up to Jesus, with the best of intentions,
and unwittingly doing his best to preclude the resurrection and all its benefits.
There can be no Easter without Good Friday.

Peter cannot see the value of the vision which Jesus portrays.
It is at odds with Peter's expectations.
Even though Jesus clearly say that Jesus will rise again on the third day,
all Peter appears to have heard is that Jesus will die. And this is not acceptable to Peter.

"God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you," Peter says.

It is an ironic statement for we know that God will in fact allow it.
Indeed it must occur so that Jesus' resurrection can be the means of showing
that nothing, not even violent death, can defeat the power of God's love.

Jesus is clear that the momentum building through his life
of faithful obedience to God's call will inevitable lead
to a deadly clash with the authorities. But Jesus is resolved to press on.
It is not that Jesus seeks death, rather he is portraying how a person truly seeks real life.

Seeking real life is not easy. It is costly and full of wrestling.
It may not require that a person lose their life physically, although it might.
But it will certainly require that we loosen our grip on everything which we hold dear.

For we are not islands in a sea of humanity. We do not exist in a separate realm over which we rule. We are interdependent. That web of connection includes all with whom we come in contact and radiates out , not from the point of our own ego, but from God who is the center of all things. To find real life we need to shift our sense of what is central.

The paradox and the promise is that even as our life as we know it slips away,
we become empty enough to be filled with the life which God offers.
But we cannot know what we will receive until we have prepared an empty place.

And this is what makes it so difficult.
It is hard to be willing to empty out what we are and what we have.
We are always much more aware of what we are losing, or giving up,
than we are of what it is we may receive in its place.

And we can never know what exactly we will find at the end of this transformation.
We are being asked to be willing to trade in the known for a mystery.

Why should we even consider this?
Because there is nothing more valuable than real life.

We could gather all the riches of the world
and we would only be holding that which passes away.
Real life is eternal, steadfast, enduring and full of the love of God.
Nothing is more precious than real life: not our status, our reputation, or our sense of independence. All of these can change in a heartbeat.

We should consider the hard work of letting go and listening for God's direction
because real life is only reached by aligning our direction in life with God's call to what is central.

For Jesus, heeding the call to the life of faith meant Jerusalem and the cross.
I can't tell you what your road will be, or to what God may be calling you.

But I can assure you that God is calling each one of us.
I can assure you that the choice of how we will respond is ours to make.
And I know that the choices we make have consequences. We turn towards the mystery of a fuller relationship with God, or the misery of being disconnected: an island lost in the mists of our own imagination.

We can save our life as we know it and pass up the possibilities which God offers.
Or we can move forward, through the unknown, towards the heavenly city.

Jesus rebukes Peter, calls him the tempter and a stumbling block.
He wants Peter to see the stony road to Jerusalem,
it is real and a necessary part of the journey.
But Jesus wants Peter to look higher, too.
Look up to Calvary, and then higher still.
Beyond the cross is real life, supercharged and to the nth degree.

There is nothing we can trade for life. We cannot buy it.
We cannot barter for or steal our life out of Godıs hands.
God gave us this life as we know it ­- a free gift.
God offers us abundant life ­ a gift which never ends.

Let me close with the words of Saint Paul:
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship.

Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God ­ what is good and acceptable and perfect."