10-Minute Wednesdays-Funny stories

Welcome to Raw, 10-minute Wednesday. A place to write how you really feel. No judging!
    AND...Please visit someone else's blog and leave an encouraging comment.

 I don't know about you, but I have had one of those days where I could use a laugh. So without further ado...here is my funny story in 10-minutes:

My brother and I went to the same college for a couple of years. We were having lunch outside in the commons area when a custodian (a woman) came right between us...I mean in-between us to where we were practically touching arms with her to pick up a cigarette butt with a metal contraption that had pinchers attached at the bottom. She didn't say excuse me as she tried to grasp the cigarette butt of the ground to no avail. The worst part was that the tool was making a consistent squeaker, squeaky, squeaker sound that sent me into hysterics. 
   And if you have one of those best friends or a sibling then you KNOW that once you look them in the eye that it only makes you laugh harder and more! So there we were trying our hardest to not crack up hysterically in front of this woman, but the more we tried the more difficult it was to contain our laughter.

 I am sure some of my spit ended up on this woman! She did eventually get the cigarette butt of the ground and we were able to let our laughter out. Of course, we did the whole let's replay this conversation to only enjoy another burst of giggles. 

Okay-Your turn!! Give me a funny story.

Raw 10-minute Wednesdays: The cost of following Jesus

Welcome to RAW 10-minute Wednesdays. A place to write freely and openly without judgement. A chance to think deeply and express from the heart on a topic or prompt provided by me. 

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.