Lose the "lose!"

Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.  ~ Jesus

Sometimes I get the words "lose" and "loose" confused, not their meaning so much as their spelling. I'm forever wanting to ad or omit that extra "o" which of course changes the meaning of what I'm writing.  For example I may want to say "my dog is loose in the yard" but leaving out that "o" has him losing in some kind of competition. There are times when accidentally adding the "o" may even spark an imaginative twist as in "losing one's mind" or "loosing one's mind." Instead of going crazy you are freeing your mind.

Such is the case with the saying above by Jesus. What if losing our life is not so much dying as it is letting go of, i.e. loosing, our life? By loosening and letting go of our perceptions, prejudices, pride, and fear we discover new ways of experiencing life and old ways are lost. Seen this way, Jesus' teaching is not as foreboding as it is inviting.

Maybe Jesus is simply telling us to loosen up, relax, let go and open ourselves to the full possibilities and potentials of the wonderful thing we call life.  In other words, lose the "lose!"