Our kids sometimes pretend they don't hear things we ask them to do, because they don't like it or they don't want to, and so we'll have to repeat ourselves over and over again until they finally realize that we aren't going to stop nagging them until they do it. Good times.
When I read these verses, I feel like I want to do this to God. I love to focus on all the things that God does for me. I tend to slide right by all the things that God asks of me. I'm sure God understands how busy I am, right? We tend not to put these verses on the sign out front, and we don't recite this every week in church... but maybe we should. Maybe we need to be reminded how incredible the gift of discipleship is, and what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to follow Jesus, and that the rewards are worth giving up everything. In our 21st century minds, we much prefer instant gratification, so we downplay the eternal rewards, which leads us to minimize discipleship that has a cost. We don't like to sacrifice, especially for things that are far in the future and unclear due to the fact that they often lay on the other side of death.
But, truly, what could we offer in exchange for our soul? We offer it to lots of things in the world that promise us wealth and comfort. Jesus is calling us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and pursue selflessness, which isn't a winning message in modernity. But in eternity... it's the rhythm of life.
Do we have the courage to hear the challenge of Jesus and pray for Holy Spirit wisdom to live into this now? Can we take seriously the call of Christ and the urgency of discipleship? Will we do the hard work of living for Christ, of turning away from the noise and the greed and the consumerism? Can we chase holiness and service and faithfulness?
I know what I want my answers to be, but day by day, hour by hour, my life reveals my choices, and I often can be caught building my own kingdom, which may seem sturdy now, but one day, it will topple. In that day, what will catch me? Will I be found to have built as a life of folly without considering eternity? Or will I have made the wise choice to join with Christ in building his kingdom? Will I give freely from the earthly treasure I have now because I recognize the surpassing value of heavenly treasure, which looks nothing like dollars and cents and silver and gold? Or will I measure my own worth by the amount in a bank account?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a fantastic book called The Cost of Discipleship that is worth your time if you haven't read it. But to read it is to expose yourself to the same challenge we find here at the end of Mark 8. It asks us to risk everything, and it leaves me uncomfortable. I used to listen to a lot of sermons by David Platt, who has also written a few excellent books that challenge us all to pursue discipleship with greater fervor. It's a hard message to hear from my place of comfort where I often sit.
That's probably enough for today, right? This is a message that's hard for me to hear. Which means it's probably very, very important for me to hear. For us all to hear. And to pray over. And to follow.
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