remembering the cost of discipleship

I have arrived and moved into my dorm at Biola University where I will begin classes for my degree in Biblical Studies on Wednesday. It is an exciting experience to finally be a college student and to finally get to study the bible full-time. The one thing I have been faced with is how to adjust as my life and routine has radically changed. I realized today that I have forgotten what it really means to be a disciple. A disciple is one who has given up his own plan and embraced the call to simply walk by faith. At the church service I went to today the text was Luke 7:36-49. That passage is about a woman who the reader knows nothing about besides that she is a sinner yet she has a beautiful faith. She brings a smile to Jesus' face while everyone else is lost in their religion. What I got out of it was the simple but profound reminder that the Christian walk, when broken down, is just simply living to be faithful to Christ's callings. A life of fidelity trumps all wisdom, knowledge, good works, and religion. But living to be faithful has a huge cost that I realize now that I need to constantly commit to. To be someone who simply follows what Christ calls them to everyday means that a lot of our earthly desire have to be thrown out. This is hard to come to grips with sometimes. I am a selfish person. I want to do what I want to do and it is so hard to give up what I want to do for something that doesn't seem like fun. God knows us and knows how to stretch us. Being stretched by God is something I hate but also something I am able to love at the same time because I know it is how I learn and how God forms me into the man he wants me to be. I am looking forward to being stretched at Biola as well as looking forward to better learning how to simply be faithful to what God has called me to no matter how lame or ridiculous it sounds.