Come, Follow me!

When for the fifth or sixth time I found myself glued to chess tactics server online, chess set set in front of me, chess books opened all around me, scribbling furiously in my chess notebook; not having said much to God and having spent little time with him in several days; I knew I had a problem. For those of you who know me from high school or PRBI, you know how much enjoy playing chess. But these last few days there have been several moments where I have gone off the deep end!

Coming to this realization started with a concert believe it or not. David Nasser spoke at the Starfield concert here in Regina and his message could hardly have been more pointed at me. He preached on the rich young ruler in a way that I had never heard before! The thought process began in my mind when David asked the question, "Why did Jesus ask the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions?" I had always thought the answer was simply "because he struggled with the love of money."

But David challenged that flat out for me. Jesus actually asked two things of the rich young ruler, but we often miss the second one because the first one seems so important. He asked him to sell all that he owned and to come follow him.

This wasn't just some helpful advice to inherit eternal life! This was a call to be Jesus' disciple! Jesus answer to the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life was not simply, "overcome your struggle with wealth"...it was "come be my disciple! Come follow me!"

And here is where it hit home for me...all this talk about being rich and the wealth of the rich man and selling his possessions is all there to illustrate one thing: the cost of discipleship.

What does it cost be a disciple of Jesus? What does it cost to inherit eternal life?

Everything...

Go and sell all you have (aka. give up everything; all that stuff that is now your life) and follow me. As David put it so well, Jesus doesn't just want to be another thing on your shelf or even the thing on the top shelf of your life...he wants to be your everything. That's the cost of following Jesus.

With this stewing in my mind over the last few days, it became very obvious to me that I had set up chess as an idol in my life and it was stealing what God is jealous to have in my life. When I began to think of taking a break from chess or giving it up, I met all sorts of opposition within. That's when I realized it has to go!

Now I realize that chess is not inherently evil. I realize that is something that God has given me for my enjoyment. But God hates it when we fall so in love with the gift that we forget about Him who gave it to us. I don't know when I will play chess again. But I am willing to give it up in the meantime until I can play it with confidence that I am doing out of a pure heart.

Already I felt more freedom than before. My time with God is where it should be again, uncontested! And I am more satisfied in this than any moment I had before with the chess.

I strongly encourage you (the reader) to ask yourself some of these questions. Is there anything that I am not willing to give up to have Jesus as my everything? Am I willing to pay the price of true life?

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. Mk. 8:35-36