Following Jesus Is Costly And The Very Best Thing We Can Do

Jesus is blazingly honest about the cost of following him. We cannot be driven by our prideful or self-indulgent desires but must submit our will to his phenomenally brilliant will & accept His assignments. These involve the disciplines necessary for growth, rather than neurosis, as Jung puts it—including being healthy, running an orderly household, and using our gifts.

Following Jesus is not incompatible with pursuing excellence, though we no longer own our work; God does! But pursuing what Tim Keller calls counterfeit Gods: “money, the seduction of success, the power & the glory,” exhausts us, for that ladder never ends!

Besides, as C. S. Lewis points out, the rewards of following Christ are staggering: peace; the fullness of joy; living water for our thirsts; living bread for our hunger; light for our confusions & occasional guidance to the one fish with silver in its mouth & a thousand-fold multiplication of our labor. Following Jesus is tough but surpassingly worth it!