The church's children must return continually to Christ for the shape of the Christian life. When we take up our cross to follow him, in our weakness, we feel the burden of deprivation. Like taking up our cross, we feel the grief of our own self-denial. During Lent, many people choose disciplines of self-denial in fasting and other bodily training. Such disciplines may remind us that we are dust and flesh, and that to dust we shall return. That is as it should be. But sometimes self-denial takes on a life of its own. We can get so focused on our period of self-deprivation and the struggle we are having overcoming our bodily cravings, that we lose sight of the benefits of our time of self-denial. Ultimately, we lose sight of the fact that by denying ourselves we are losing nothing. By being focused on the loss, we are focused on nothing and to our detriment.

What is the point of self-denial? What is the point of self-abnegation? It is to be shaped like Christ. Our self emptying is that we would be filled by Him. Our humiliation is so that we might live in His resurrected power and indestructible life. Our humiliation, like His, is truly the loss of nothing for the sake of gaining everything. Our being emptied receives all of His gifts. A vessel that is full is capable of receiving nothing. If we are surfeited with our own spirituality, or lack of it, we shall have no room for the resurrected Christ. So we should not become so focused on our effort and so lose sight of what self-denial is for. It is that we should carry around in our bodies both the death and life of Christ.

In this way, we are truly dying to live. Our dying flesh becomes the bearer of immortality. Our poverty in the eyes of the world makes us most rich. Our humility enthrones us as kings and priests in the kingdom of Christ. This happens not by reason of our lack, but by reason of Christ's coming to fill in the emptiness with which we are left by denial of self and a life of repentance. The ultimate case of this is on death day, where life is denied, and just then perfect life is gained. Just when there is nothing, you have everything.