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Today’s
text
Or again, what king
marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider
whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who was advancing
against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other
king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple without giving
up all that he owns.
Reflection
The cost of following Jesus is constant and unending--yourself.
It is not once given, but daily. Each day one wakes and
chooses, once more, to surrender the self you think you are, the self you have
been, for the self that is Christ within you.
There is a pearl of great price in every soul. Call it Spirit.
Call it grace or love. It is the Christ heart that hungers for the Love it is,
the Love who brought it into being, the Love it hungers to be.
The price of following Jesus, the cost of the cross, is the
willingness to surrender whatever else you are for the sake of this heart.
The Christ heart calls us beyond commitments to job, friends
or even family. It coaxes us beyond whatever we cling to give ourselves meaning
and purpose. It tells us our struggle to be important and to gain other’s
respect distracts us from life’s real purpose.
It whispers on dark nights when sleep fails, when the noise
of life is silenced and we hear our own inner voice. “Nothing else matters,’ it
says. “Nothing. All that matters is being this heart, this soul, this love.”
The voice tells us the truth. It is the voice of the Christ
heart calling us beyond what we are, beyond that to which we give our time and
attention, beyond the common ways we define ourselves, beyond the labels others
assign to us at work or play or school, beyond their expectations and demands.
It calls us to give up all those other selves and be the
Great Self that is the heart of Christ hidden and sleeping within.
It asks for everything … and gives much more.
Pr. David L. Miller
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