The Cost of Discipleship

"The life of discipleship can only be maintained so long as nothing is allowed to come between Christ and ourselves, neither the law, nor personal piety, nor even the world. The disciple looks always only to his master, never to Christ AND the law, Christ AND religion, Christ AND the world. Only by following Christ alone can he preserve a single eye."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A challenge to 'easy' Christianity - be it armchair or pew variety! To BE a Christian means we are called to walk the talk - to pick up our cross and follow (i.e. be disciples of) Christ daily - but to pick up the cross, we must approach it empty-handed.

Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

I Surrender some...

Some to Jesus I surrender;
some to him I nervously give;
I will sometimes love and trust him,
in his presence daily live.

Refrain:
I surrender some, I surrender some,
some to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender some.

Some to Jesus I surrender;
grudgingly at his feet I bow,
worldly pleasures none forsaken;
take me, Jesus, take me later.
(Refrain)

Some to Jesus I surrender;
make me, Savior, mostly thine;
fill me with thy love and power;
maybe know that thou art mine.
(Refrain)

Some to Jesus I surrender;
Lord, I give some parts to thee;
fill me with thy love and power;
let thy blessing fall on me.
(Refrain)

Some to Jesus I surrender;
now I feel the sacred flame.
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to his name!
(Refrain)


Ah thank God the amount we receive of His blessings isn't necessarily limited by the amount of our willingness to serve Him :)

Better than a Hallelujah...

How many times have we been to Church on Sunday, done all the 'right' stuff, raised our hands and/or voices (depending on the tradition!) in worship, smiled happily at our brothers and sisters in Christ, "yes everything's fine" - when in reality, physically, spiritually and emotionally our lives are far from fine?

I was chatting with a non-church friend the other day about a time when I fell apart in church - interestingly, her comment was "Well, if you can't get emotional and feel safe in church, where can you do it?"

So even some non-church people recognise that church should be the one place where we can express what we're really going through.  Not that church should become a vast counselling centre or anything like that, but I do believe that we could be more open with each other - and then we might just get the answers to our as yet unanswered prayers, through the support of the very community of which we are part.  We can't help one another if we won't speak openly and honestly with one another.

We seem very adept at hiding our true feelings from each other, but we can't hide them from God, so maybe it's time to take a chance and get real with Him.  The challenge is that getting real with God might mean getting real with each other too.

The real stuff we're made of...

Beyond the thinking, reflecting, willing and loving self, and even beyond the mystical "spark" in the deepest ground of the soul, is the highest agent, "at once pure and free as God is and like him it is a perfect unity." For "there is something in the soul so closely akin to God that is already one with him and need never be united to him."

Thomas Merton