Living For: A Ramble

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 - 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
I read somewhere once that it is easier to die for something than to live for it. Consider the life of the soldier. Carrying his gear, he marches across fields and awaits the moment when the rounds are whizzing around him and he must fight back. Despite training, I imagine there is still a sense of fear, of tension, that creeps in. Staying alive becomes difficult. Dying is easy. Fighting is the hard thing. Make a correlation to everyday life. The decisions that we make day to day affect our living and dying. Some are simple decisions such as whether or not to drive in the wrong lane on the freeway. Other decisions are more difficult, such as the decision to eat healthier and reject that appetite for sugar and fat. I want to apply this spiritually, though. Because of our rebellion against God, we deserve death (death is separation from God). We are born into that life, yet God made a way for us to avoid that separation. His son took that death for us. In a sick sort of irony, though, we are able to still accept that death. Accepting that death is easy. All it requires is following our earthly lusts. In America, we seem to reach for that death while still claiming to live for something. Usually, we claim to live for something in order to make ourselves feel better. In essence, we are only living for ourselves by dying.
Personally, I want to live for something greater than myself, and I want to do so by living. This is what Jesus meant when he told his disciples that all who discover their life will lose it, but all who lose it for his sake will surely find their life. This morning I read a reminder that life is not about us, but about God. So it is for Him that we should live. For Americans, this is difficult because we must give up so much. We just came out of the Christmas season, a season which is saturated in the selfish "gimme" attitude. I found myself wanting things, but not knowing what they were. This desiring has just become a part of who we are. In order to live for God, a lot of our own desires should be pushed aside.
Living for something requires choices, hard choices. Living for Christ requires very tough choices. Mostly, it requires putting everyone else before ourselves. As some have said: Jesus, Others, You = joy.
As I find myself in a time where I want to throw a hughe pity party, this concept of living for Christ becomes difficult. What makes it even more difficult is the fact that the change I seek is to be in a more full time ministry. I hear conflicting arguments. On the one hand, God wants us to be happy and joyful, so what he asks of us will not make us miserable. On the other hand, Jesus said that he did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Our following him won't be easy at all. We'll meet all kinds of fierce opposition (much worse than removing prayer from school). We will be arrested, stoned, tortured, ridiculed, etc. What Christ wants of us is to find joy in him, not in circumstances. The discussion I want to see happening is on this question: how do we find joy in Christ? How do we break free from circumstancial joy and rejoice even in our suffering? In other words, how do we live for Christ?