“Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead,” states C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity. The implications of that statement leave me pondering my attitudes and choices needing change, but the process of change isn’t too appealing. Resurrection is impossible without death, and death on the installment plan is how it plays out in my daily living. My final breath is only the last part of a long death sequence in my life.

Sometimes we excuse our negative attitudes and self-centered thinking believing that such mind-sets are just part of our personality and, therefore, acceptable. We aren’t sure if we would know our self if our personality didn’t have the imprint of our world for its source. Yet in order to have the mind-set of Jesus, old mind-sets have to die. “Unless you have given up yourself to Him you will not have a real self,” C. S. Lewis explains.

So here are a few things I am currently seeing die in my own life:

• The need to be fully understood by most people
• The desire to work less as I grow older
• Unacceptable ways of communicating my frustrations
• A hope that all my children and grandchildren will live close by

Who knows what I will look like as these are raised from the dead by the resurrected One.

How is death on the installment plan working for you? What does your current death wish look like? I’ve shared mine—now you share yours.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis