On my way to class today I began thinking about this verse:
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26-33 ESV
It's scary! I've always interpreted it as 'if you want to be a
disciple, you have to hate everything about your life except God.' I've even heard sermons that preach something along the lines of 'if God asks you to give up your family, friends, etc. you have to do it, or else." It's
never made any sense to me because I consider a lot of things in my life
as blessings, especially my family and friends. I love and cherish many parts of my life. Why do I have to give them up in order to follow Jesus?
Then I hopped on a different train of thought. I believe Jesus was actually conveying something of a completely different nature: God wants us to remove all the practices, people, materialistic treasures, etc. that inhibit our walk with Christ.
Imagine Christ is walking 100 yards in front of you and you're supposed to follow behind Him. However, there are heaping piles of junk and clutter all in your path. You can barely see him now. As you dodge all the garbage in your way, Christ gets further and further away. You can't see Him anymore, so is He really still there? Doubt starts creeping in as the clutter grows. Your problems are beyond your control now. If only you had simply cleared out your path before it overwhelmed you.
Turns out, removing all that stuff isn't so simple. Maybe you're in a relationship past its expiration date, but it's been so long you can't just leave it. Maybe it's an addiction or a constant temptation. Maybe it's a friend who too easily persuades you to participate in activities you normally wouldn't.
Maybe you're like I was. You don't know what the cause is, but you feel the symptoms of distance. You feel yourself put priorities in front of Him. You feel Him become an acquaintance, rather than a close friend. Growth halts and frustration sets in. It wasn't until I dropped a major piece of clutter in my life that I realized what exactly was inhibiting my relationship with Christ. I had hit a glass wall standing between me and Christ. I didn't know it was there until I finally knocked it down.
I don't want anyone to feel like they're stuck. I don't want anyone to feel like they're walking in quick sand, chained to the life they have right now. Christ is waiting for you. He's been there the whole time. Remove those heaping piles of junk and clutter from your path, and begin following Jesus again. Once you knock down your glass wall, you'll experience an indescribable kind of freedom. I promise.
