Heaven is the most beautiful place that could ever be imagined. One of my favorite teachers taught me the quote, "everyone wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die." Well, according to the Christian faith, that saying might as well be changed to, "everyone wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die... to themselves."
Christ calls us to drop everything to follow Him. When I first heard that, I thought, "I don't think he really means drop everything and follow Him. He must mean just love Him with all of your heart." To be honest, I was looking for any excuse, clutching at straws, to keep from loving Jesus with all of my heart; and looking back now, I found it disrespectful to want to gain the benefits of Christ without giving Him my full heart.
In Matthew 16:24-25, "Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.'" I thought that this was a nice little saying as well, and it meant nothing to me, until I found a verse that goes nicely with it. In Luke 14:26, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." When I read this, I thought, "I have to stop loving my mother?" Now, I am a mama's boy through and through, and never afraid to admit it. My mother provided food, clothing, warmth, shelter, toys, computers, televisions, rides, an education, and so much more ever since the moment of my birth. I see that as her choice, not her obligation. She did not have to treat me so well by spoiling me, and I am a picky spoiled brat to be honest.
So When I read that I need to hate her, I was confused. God put her in my life for a reason. He told me to honor her in his commandments and to respect her. I was to make her proud and not shame her. So, if I was to love my mother, how could I hate her as well? When I wanted to know, God showed me.
Now, "hate" is a strong word, and I could never hate my mother. I could hate my own life and the things in it, but hating my mother seemed like a harder task than finishing college in three years with a double major and a minor. Even though the word is intense, that is how it will look when we love Christ with our all. It will look like we love Christ more than our mothers and fathers and siblings and ourselves; and in a worldly view, if you don't love yourself enough to think about yourself at all hours of the day, you will either look like a saint or like you hate yourself.
Now, this verse does not mean hate your parents or siblings or to even hate yourself, but it does say to put Jesus first. Now, Jesus is making a radical demand for us to live up to; but it is the only sensible demand. I love my mother, more than words could ever describe, and I will tell her that daily; but she did not die on the cross for me and take the cup of God's wrath and die for my sins so that I could go to Heaven. I know that she would if she could, but she is human and has sinned, just like I am human and have sinned. That means that I deserve Hell and cannot find a way out unless someone who has lived a perfect life will willingly trade their perfection for my sins and die the death that I deserved. I will be eternally grateful to Christ for saving me, and that is something that I cannot be grateful to anyone else for.
I see it like this. I am working for Jesus Christ: Heaven is my payment, Salvation is my coverage, Grace and Mercy are my insurance plans, and Authority in Christ is my benefit. These are all powerful benefits and perks for working for Christ. I cannot get full time benefits for working a part time job. I must give this job my full time commitment in order to maintain the benefits that Christ willingly offers me.
So, when Christ calls me to "hate" everything, He is calling me to look past the earth and towards Him. With this in mind, I will gladly look towards Christ and put everything else second. The way I can examine myself is to say that anything I love with all of my heart, anything that I put in front of Christ and my time with Him, is an idol and that idol is my god. No god is worth an eternity in Hell when I have a chance to be saved through faith by Christ. So many things I want to talk about, but so little time. Is anything so important that it can come in the middle of my relationship with Christ? I would say no, and I pray that it always stays that way.
-D
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