January 17
What If I Say Yes?
And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
––Luke 14:27
Some ask, “Why should I let God redefine me? Why should I release every last part of my will to this process? What will God do in my life if I say yes?”
And actually, if you are not asking these kinds of questions, you should be. If I were being asked to accelerate my spiritual commitment to the level of “dangerous good,” I would want to know what I was getting into. What can I expect in real time and in my real life? Jesus paints a vivid picture of counting the cost:
Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, “This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.”
––Luke 14:28-30
It’s one thing to commit yourself to being a disciple, but it’s another thing to find models that are doing it well. Fortunately, we have a complete picture available to us of what a dangerous good life looks like. Jesus came and lived His life as a man; as such, we have a model in real time for how a man lives out his truest identity. He came not only to show us that living for an audience of one is the right way to be, believe, and behave, but also to motivate us to do the same as men in our time and context. Masculinity starts and stops with Jesus. He is both alpha and omega male when it comes to living in front of God.
Not only does Jesus show us what the dangerous good identity looks like, He helps understand what being a man should feel like. That’s right—I just connected the words feel and man. Not to worry though, because what we see happening in Christ defies the gender-bending labels of today’s culture, transcending and overcoming them. Jesus brings masculinity to a place where cultural man cannot go but where every man on planet Earth longs to be: a place where danger and good come together.
There is no fuller, more complete model of masculinity than Jesus of Nazareth. He wept when life warranted tears; He raged when hypocrisy demanded it; He surrendered when He was called to do so.
When you say “yes” to discipleship, the commitment comes with a Master Teacher. That’s truly good news.
Lord, take my life and mold it according to my perfect role model, Jesus.