not the easy Way

Following after Christ is not simple. This way of life is not easy, it does not always make sense. It’s one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. No, actually it IS the hardest thing that I have ever had to do. I suppose I would not want it any other way. Having the ability to have it another way is now no longer an option anyway however. My soul has already been made aware that there is a Creator God who created me for relationship with Him, there is no undoing that. The warfare is absurd, unrelenting, and forever crouching at my door. If it is not attacking me personally it is attacking my marriage or those I love most.

Going in, for Jesus to tell me to “count the cost” before you follow me, was in reality an impossibility. I did not know what it would cost to follow Him in total. And I know that I still have yet to learn what it will cost me in the end. So many of us who decide to follow decide to do so because we see the decision to do so as such a simple one, but in Luke Jesus tells us that we have to count the cost, that He doesn’t want us to be prepared to give anything less than 100% -- He’s not saying He won’t accept us if we just give a half-effort, because as we all know there are far too many Christians that give just that, therefore we know He will take that offer as well. He tells us to give 100% because He knows that’s what it takes to live for Him – with everything waging war against our souls when once we recognize Him as Savior, without giving 100% daily to Him, we will once again be dominated, held in captivity by our inability to be perfect and our limitations.

We are spiritual beings, we live in a spiritual world. If you disagree with this idea, then I ask you where does hope come from? Why do we as humans always strive for an ideal rather than become content to simply live out practicality … are we not hoping for something more? Where does that hoping for something more come from? Basic instincts tell us to survive; looking for the ideal in the midst of practicality, seeking out the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary, and pursing hope despite the given circumstances is something unique to humanity -- unique to us because we are not just physical we are also spiritual. Hope is so unique to us that it seems that when once we loose it, we loose ourselves and even our desire to live.

So I say all that to say the main point ... when our souls come into the light, when we understand that we not only have a Creator, but that He wants an actual relationship with us, and wants to give us life full of hope, full of purpose, full of joy, full of life and we decide to follow Jesus ... it will not be safe, to be in the center of God’s plan is not safe. Is He secure, no doubt! When once we are His, we are always His. But is He safe to follow, no way. Once we commit to following Him we have just committed to fighting against evil. Just as in the physical world there is good and bad, so it is in the spiritual world. If we are with the good then we are against the evil. If we are against the evil, then the evil is just the same -- against us. That is a bit frightening to consider, but it is truth. The Bible speaks of this warfare often -- 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, Ephesians 6:12, 1 Peter 5:8, etc. It also speaks of how much greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4) -- as well as declares His ultimate victory -- Isaiah 52:12, John 16:33, 2 Chronicles 20:15, Philippians 2:10-11, etc.

It's not the easy Way, it will take all that you are, but if 100% is the cost of finally being fully alive -- knowing in the end you do win, it is worth it, you will not be disappointed -- the cost perhaps is not that high.