"Become homeless. Let someone else bury your dad. Don't even say good-bye to your family. Is it surprising that, from all we can tell in Luke 9, Jesus was successful in persuading these men not to follow him?" - p. 8
"Give up everything you have, carry a cross, and hate your family. This sounds a lot different from 'Admit, believe, confess, and pray a prayer after me.'" - pp. 10-11
"[T]he kind of abandonment Jesus asked of the rich young man is at the core of Jesus' invitation throughout the Gospels. Even his simple call in Matthew 4 to his disciples - 'Follow me' - contained radical implications for their lives. Jesus was calling them to abandon their comforts, all that was familiar to them and natural for them. He was calling them to abandon their careers. ... Jesus was calling them to abandon their possessions. ... Jesus was calling them to abandon their family and their friends. ... Ultimately, Jesus was calling them to abandon themselves." - pp. 11-12
"In a world that prizes promoting oneself, they were following a teacher who told them to crucify themselves. And history tells us the result. Almost all of them would lose their lives because they responded to his invitation." - p. 12I guess the big question echoes the chapter title. Is Jesus someone worth losing everything for? Is He worth losing my wife and/or unborn child for? Is He worth losing my schooling and future job for? Is He worth losing my home and possessions for? Is He worth losing my abilities and faculties for?
With my head, I know the answer is yes, but in my heart, I'm trying to intellectualise it so I don't feel the weight of these questions. My heart is in denial somewhat that the cost of following Christ could be this big.
God, please help me to let go. Please help me to put you in a place of higher honour and esteem in my heart, that my affections would not be fixated on these worldly treasures - relationships, people, jobs, income, senses - but on you. Teach me to be poor in spirit, holding the gifts and blessings you have given with an open hand, content in you, such that, should you take them, my joy and satisfaction would still be full. Oh Lord, allow me to sing to you the hymn: "Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Naught be all else to me save that thou art. Thou my best thought by day or by night. Waking or sleeping thy presence my light." Amen
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