34And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? Mark 8
“Christian” is meaningless. Forget it. Today anyone can call himself a Christian. It’s a status word. It describes what someone says he is. It means no more than what the speaker intends. It doesn’t communicate a unique idea. It’s a non-action word with no universally agreed-to definition.
“Follower” is an action word. It implies actions along a path determined by another. It implies a singularity that eliminates all other options. It means Jesus is a pilot, not copilot. He doesn’t make our way possible or more comfortable. It’s all about His Way. Followers were originally called The Way, not “a way” or “your own way.”
Admit it. Don’t we want Jesus to make the life we want possible? Don’t we ask kids, “What do you want to be?” Don’t we ask others, “What do you do?” Aren’t these the wrong questions? Aren’t the questions wrong? We don’t know the path. We are completely lost. We know the destination only in a vague ultimate sense. The path is completely unknown and unknowable to those operating on their own. We should trust and follow.
We don’t want to be followers. Followers are sheep. Jesus didn’t call us sheep or himself, a shepherd by accident. If we are honest we are all sheep. We just don’t all have a Good Shepherd. Most of us have shepherds who don’t love us or even know us. They just have the skill to take us where they want us to go while making us believe it was all our idea.
Letting go of our lives becomes harder the longer we have clung to it and the more comfortable we are in it. It’s harder to recognize it’s an illusion of life and only a shadow of the glorious and joyful life cross-carrying can be.
Be something real, an action person, someone with life with meaning and purpose. Be a Follower.
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