Following Christ is Hard

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This is Day 34 of my 40 day Lenten Blog.

There is nothing greater than following Christ. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and the only way to Heaven is through Him. Christ is God incarnate. There can be no good without Him. Everything good in your life comes from Him even if you do not believe in Him. God brings the rain and the sun on sinners and saints alike. Furthermore, the ultimate good, eternal life in Heaven, can only be achieved through Christ. But following Christ is hard.

Would you expect otherwise? Almost everything worth doing has some level of difficulty, and there is nothing worth doing more than following Christ.

Jesus told us not to take following Him too lightly. We need to count the cost before we commit to it. He asks nothing less than our full commitment. We can love nothing else more than Him; not our husbands and wives, or even our children. He must always come first.

And we must submit our will to His. We must cast our crowns at His feet. We must do what He wants even when we don't want to. We must do what He wants even if it means our martyrdom and death. After all, isn't that what He did? Didn't He die for us. And He did not want to do it. He did not want to go to the cross. In fact, He crawled on His belly begging His Father not to make Him do it. But He also told His Father, "Not my will, but yours be done." It is okay to ask God not to make us do something, as long as we know it is His will, not ours that must be done.

Christ expects us to take up our cross and follow Him EVERY DAY! No, contrary to what some will tell you, Christianity is not a health and wealth religion. It is a religion that embraces suffering. We must all suffer, the righteous and wicked alike. It is how you go through that suffering that matters. Will you curse God for it? Or will you say, "Thy will be done?"

Christ cares very much about sin. He doesn't want you to sin. He died to wash those sins away. It's like a lash of the scourge, a nail through the hands, a cut of the thorns on His forehead every time we commit a sin. Yes, He loves us anyway, just like I love my children even when they are bad. But He still doesn't want us to do it. He expects us to "be perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect." Yes, He will meet you where you are, but then He will change you, and if you will not change, if you refuse to put on the cloak of holiness, because you think you are good enough just the way you are, then you will be cast out of the kingdom into the darkness.

He expects you to provide a good witness for others and lead them to Him. Christ gave us what is known as the Great Commission where He commanded that we go out and preach the gospel to all peoples and baptize them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This can be very difficult even in our own communities, but sometimes He calls us to go to far-away lands and place ourselves in grave danger to preach His gospel.

Christ has no room for kings in His kingdom. He expects His followers to be humble, to wash the feet of their brothers and sisters, to forgive unconditionally, to be extremely generous, and always be willing to help others no matter how much it inconveniences us. He expects us to not only refrain from killing people, but also refrain from hating them. He expects us to not let our eyes wonder in lust to men and women who are not our spouse, as that is as bad as adultery. He expects us to give up selfishness and pride, to put others first, to wish for their success over even our own.

There are some people who think that being a Christian simply involves believing in Jesus. But even the demons do that. To be a Christian requires following Him and giving your life over to Him completely. Yes, we will fall short, I do ALL OF THE TIME! But we have to keep trying. It's not enough to simply go to church, or read your Bible from time-to-time. Being a Christian is a deep love and sacrifice not unlike that of a spouse or parent. And just like being a spouse or a parent, it is really hard, but it also really worth it!

R.C. VanLandingham is a Catholic homeschool dad just trying to make it through this life and into the next! He has written a Christian children's fantasy series about a boy named Peter Puckett!