Death to life. The spiritual order of things.

"Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal." - Jesus The Message 

Today is Easter and the topic I most often I hear about at easter is Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection. This is always a powerful message, but today I am intrigued by Jesus' invitation to join him in his death, so that life can be attained. Death tends to bring out fear in most of us but Jesus says without dying we miss life. I suppose that the pain of sacrifice and the unknown of death is the reason it strikes so much fear in us. Death seems so final. Yet according to Jesus the death or sacrifice of the life that we live now is the door that opens us to real living. I don't begin to claim to understand all of this but I what I do know is the thing that pushes me to hold on to this life is my fear of losing it. So, I wonder if I live a life dominated by the fear of losing it, is that really living anyway. It seems that a true life of freedom can only be found in the ability to freely give up the life we have now, then our fear of losing this life won't keep us from the one promised by God.