Please remember the rules: 1)Visit another person's blog and leave a kind or encouraging comment. 2)Please put my post link on your post so others can visit if they want and add their posts. 3)NO platitudes, judging or fixing others as this is a place for raw and real emotion.
Today's prompt: When was the last time your relationship with Jesus cost you something? (inspired from Kyle Idleman's book, Not a Fan)
Go...
The above is a loaded question. I mean does following Jesus really cost us something? It almost sounds insulting because Jesus isn't a coveted object on a rack.
And if following Jesus means giving up something, everything, do I? Or am I lying to myself? Don't answer that!
Today, my relationship with Jesus is costing me something: less money, less comfort, no prestigious or lucrative career, not being well known, being lonely, missing friends, living somewhere I didn't pick...you get the point.
This life I am living right now is not how I would have done things. It just isn't my plan. Yet, I know what I have left behind and now that I know I could never return fully. I couldn't pick up where I left off.
Really, I don't mind!
Isn't it easier to focus on the cost though? What about the end result? What about what I have received from following Jesus?
Following
Jesus has been more than just gaining eternal life or
forgiveness. NOT that I am making light of how wonderful those gifts
are and could write on just those subjects, but I am not who I used to be and this is a good thing. Trust me.
I have a new career: as a woman at home working in and through the affairs of her
household. I have a new perspective: living on less has offered a freedom that is hard to express in words. Things just don't define me like they used to...
This quote sums it up best, "No matter what following Jesus costs us in this life in the end we won't see it as a sacrifice. Rather we will see it as a privilege and an honor,"
-Kyle Idleman, Not a Fan book.
Amen to that...
STOP.
Okay, now it's your turn.
Thanks for hosting again. A good challenging prompt. I love the thought that we could never out give what Jesus has already given us. Never.
ReplyDeleteOh a good question. I like your response and I love the "this isn't what I had planned" and yet who would go back.Jesus tends to take us places if he first told us we would say no way, no thanks. Focusing on the cost instead of the end results as you point out. The quote at the end sums it up brilliantly. Enjoyed reading your post :-).
ReplyDeleteI'm bummed that I missed the linky! I had this post open on my laptop for two days, but never quite got around to sitting down and writing my response. BUT - I love your perspective! I think giving up our plans (air castles?) can be the costliest sacrifice. And yet the result, even in the short term, is being made more like Jesus.
ReplyDeleteWell done!