I remember as a kid watching Bugs Bunny on Saturday mornings.
Sometimes Elmer Fudd would be hunting him and he would pretend to have been shot. Then he would do this long "death dance," basically twirling around, flailing about , drop down only to come up again. It was comical because you knew he wasn't really dying.
But I think about that sometimes when I can tell the Lord is asking me to die to myself. That's how the flesh dies, isn't it? How it looks when we die to our own selfish ways and desires. Our flesh never dies quietly. It often does that same over the top dance, same as the cartoon.
That's because it does not like to be put to death. Denial of self does not come easily.
Yet,
"Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?" Matthew 16:24-26 (NIV)
In fact, in Luke we read this is a daily task, (Luke 9:23) because like Bugs Bunny, the flesh will get up again.
