Sometimes we wonder why discipleship has to be so hard.
While there are a lot of reasons for that, here’s one we don’t often think about...
Since God took the radical risk of granting us free will, He has allowed us to make--and then live with--our decisions. As I read Scripture, I’m constantly taken aback by how seriously Jesus takes our decisions. For instance, the rich young ruler walks away from Jesus and Jesus doesn’t chase him. Jesus lets the young man make his own decision and then live with the consequences of his choice.
None of us start at zero when we choose to follow Christ. We’ve made lots of choices before we choose to follow Christ. That means we have to go back and “un-choose” some of our previous choices.
As we examine our lives, we’ll find things – everything from places we eat, people we hang out with, habits and attitudes – ways we’ve chosen to live before we meet Christ.
Then, as we choose to follow Christ, we’ll have to un-choose those things that don’t help us stay close to Christ and become more like Him.
Following Christ is a constant process of un-choosing and choosing – un-choosing those past mistakes, habits, attitudes, behaviors, relationships, and illusions we’ve comforted ourselves with and choose Jesus again and again. . .
Christ calls us to come follow Him. It’s a journey, one step after another. Each step is a choice – to choose Jesus and un-choose everything else.
