Luke 9

Jesus said "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Verse 23)

I would imagine that a few of Jesus' followers went home after this statement.

Jesus calls us to deny ourselves daily, he actually calls us to pick up our cross, which means to die to ourselves, and then follow him. I don't know about you, but I can only deny myself to a point and I can only follow Jesus to a point. Sometimes I need to take care of myself. There are things that I want to buy or do, so I buy them or do them. I'm not saying that buying a new pair of shoes or going on vacation is a bad thing, but they are motivated by my desires, not God's. (Although God did send Jonah on a cruise, but I don't think a whale's stomach makes for a very relaxing experience.)

This is the great paradox of a Chrsitian, we want to live the life we have, and we want live the life that Jesus has to offer. We want both!

We want our toys and we want God's grace.

We want to be popular and we want God's forgiveness.

We want to be wealthy and we want God' mercy.

We want to hate our enemies and we want God to love us.

We don't want to die and we want to go to heaven.

I'm sure Jesus wanted things too. I'm sure Jesus would have loved to trade his old sandals for a new pair of Nike's and I'm sure Jesus wanted to keep living. Our Lord never calls us to do something that He isn't willing to do first.

Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and follow him, because he picked up his cross first.

On the days when our wants and needs are stronger than our desire to follow him, we too can pick up his cross and know that we are loved.