I’m in a book club that meets weekly over Zoom and we go over a chapter of the book each week. It’s a great group. I know some of the people and I love them a lot, others I have just met but I care for them, and I always enjoy my time with them, their commitment to the group and their comments always bless my socks off.
This last week’s chapter in our book was hard. It was based on Luke 14:33, “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” There is a lot to unpack in those red letters and when I read those words of Christ, I hear Him speak in a southern accent and He paraphrases His own words by saying, “All y’all. Y’all can’t follow Me, until y’all love Me more than y’all love y’all’s stuff.”
While I was reading the book I had to put it down and spend some time praying and thinking (I really did). I had to ask some questions and search my soul as they say, “What is my life about?” I got on my Instagram account thinking it will tell me more about myself than I could ever imagine and it did.
According to social media I like Jesus, His Word and His people. So far so good right? I like my family and the Blonde. Those are good things and God-things (again so far so good). Then I noticed I like running shoes and running. Then I had a few pictures of plants (shout out to Kyle Cooke, Annette Stone, Dee Ann Drummond and Kim Simank). I have several pictures of my feet with running shoes on where I have etched my initials in concrete on the campus of the high school. I don’t know what that is about, but it is included as one of my life’s greatest accomplishments.
I’m about coffee, coffee mugs and Topo Chico. It’s obvious I bleed purple (Go TCU Horned Frogs), small discipleship groups are my jam, Yeti coolers, surfboards, notebooks, nice writing pens and trucker caps (a weird fetish of mine, thank you Flores family for supplying me). I read a lot, used to play a lot of tennis and golf, and I fly fish regularly. I like honey buns, Bonne Maman jelly and bottled Dr. Pepper or at least I did until I had a heart attack late last year. Wow! That’s my life, that’s what I’m about? I’m shaking my head right now. Is this what will be written on my headstone, “Ken liked jelly from France.” Man, I hope not.
Is there anything wrong with those things according to southern Jesus? Absolutely not unless they come before Him. Are these things ever more important than me following Jesus, walking in obedience to His precepts, making disciples, telling others about the Good News, loving Him and others even more than I love myself or my surfboard, coffee mugs, running shoes and TCU hoodie? If they are, I have to get rid of them. I have to remove them from the top shelf of my heart.
So, what’s the trouble Ken? You seem like a pretty good Christian to me. Well, thank you very much, I do try. Maybe that’s the problem: I try. I try in my own flesh to be a Christian, but I do trust the One who died in my place so that I might live, really live. Do I trust the Lord that He is enough, and I don’t need Him and my surfboard to complete who I am? Is my identity in Christ alone? Does that make sense?
Lord, forgive me when I try to serve two masters. Lord, I love you, you are all I need to live a life that is more than I could ever ask for, imagine or dream of.
He told me to tell you that.
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