waiting
My bible has been collecting dust for months, not, but today an unforeseen chain of events lead me to pick it up again. After spending some time thinking about forgiveness I went and searched for a video of a Buddhist that I saw around 2 years ago.
The Buddhist monk spoke about the misconceptions on forgiveness. That video led to another which led to another, and then I finally picked up my bible that was under a stack of other books and dirty dishes.
I kept reading and reading and then I got to Luke 9:37 where the Cost of following Jesus story begins. This is a very difficult story for me to take in. It seems irrational. Jesus' standards can’t possibly be that high. No you can’t go home and bury your dad, no you can’t go say goodbye to your family. If you want to follow me, let’s go!
Hold on there a second Jesus, can’t you be a little understanding... but...
I don’t think this is supposed to be viewed as Jesus not being companionate or patient. I think seeing it that was just shines a light on your selfishness. I didn’t want to just shrug this story off without trying to look deeper into it.
And then it hit me. I'm a million times worse than these people who just wanted to do something real quick before following Jesus. Because for me, my request is a lot more selfish than these. If they wrote me into this story it would sound something like, "I will follow you Lord; but first let me neglect you while I finish my degree". And, " Lord, let me first take a while to relax, because there’s a new episode of my show that I haven’t seen and it's been a long day, I'm tired.
How selfish am I! That I would even think for a moment that Jesus isn’t being fair when these people have very real requests and all I do is ask Jesus to hang on for just a little bit and then I'll let him know when I'm ready.
The Buddhist monk spoke about the misconceptions on forgiveness. That video led to another which led to another, and then I finally picked up my bible that was under a stack of other books and dirty dishes.
I kept reading and reading and then I got to Luke 9:37 where the Cost of following Jesus story begins. This is a very difficult story for me to take in. It seems irrational. Jesus' standards can’t possibly be that high. No you can’t go home and bury your dad, no you can’t go say goodbye to your family. If you want to follow me, let’s go!
Hold on there a second Jesus, can’t you be a little understanding... but...
I don’t think this is supposed to be viewed as Jesus not being companionate or patient. I think seeing it that was just shines a light on your selfishness. I didn’t want to just shrug this story off without trying to look deeper into it.
And then it hit me. I'm a million times worse than these people who just wanted to do something real quick before following Jesus. Because for me, my request is a lot more selfish than these. If they wrote me into this story it would sound something like, "I will follow you Lord; but first let me neglect you while I finish my degree". And, " Lord, let me first take a while to relax, because there’s a new episode of my show that I haven’t seen and it's been a long day, I'm tired.
How selfish am I! That I would even think for a moment that Jesus isn’t being fair when these people have very real requests and all I do is ask Jesus to hang on for just a little bit and then I'll let him know when I'm ready.
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