Sacrifices…
May 13th, 2010 by ljkim
Doing it differently – doing it for real – is going to require sacrifices. Anything extraordinary is going to require sacrifices. What’s a sacrifice? It’s anything beyond what you would normally do, and therefore it costs you… in effort, time, complexity, bandwidth, friends, enemies, emotional energy… If you want to do “what you would normally do,” then the best you can hope for is to be “ordinary.” If you really want extraordinary, then it’s going to require something extra. At the very least it won’t come naturally. It will require doing something contrary to what you would ordinarily do (something extra). You understand this when it comes to work: if you just do the regular thing, the typical answer, the dime-a-dozen approach, then you know it’s not going to be worth your while. You typically do EXTRA when it comes to the things that matter to you…
God matters. And I believe God matters to you. But traditional religion has taught you to give nothing and expect nothing from God: just put on your nice Sunday clothes and go pay your respects…at best you’ll come home with a little bit of inspiration, or at least a nice nap. In traditional religion, “sacrifice” means putting a little extra in the offering box…even though we say “God owns all of it, everything I have is for him.” We’ve been taught to give God lip service, but not the real thing.
Following Jesus for real, loving God for real will cost you. Really loving your neighbors, loving your enemies even is going to require you to dig deep and take hold of what Jesus’ message with both hands. It’s going to require all of your mind, all of your will, all of your strength. The Gospel is free, but it’s not cheap (it cost God quite a bit), and it’s not easy… It takes courage and intellect and strength to face your sin and accept real grace.
So are you ready to do this? Jesus never said following was like “a day at the spa.” That seems to be what most people expect these days…to sit back and feel “refreshed.” God will give you everything you need – but God’s not in the business of refreshing you just so you can go back to making yourself weary with stuff that’s not Him (money and play and toys and self-promotion).
We’ve tried it the no-effort way, the result of the no-effort way sucks. Let’s repent. Let’s get real…for Christ’s sake!
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