"...has following Jesus cost you anything?"
Honestly, at first, I read the question and went right on to the next sentence without really stopping to contemplate how I would answer. Then just three sentences later the author asked this question.
"Take a moment and jot down what following Jesus has cost you. How has following Jesus interfered with your life?"
The blank space on that page stared up at me begging to be filled, yet, I could not put any thoughts into words. Mostly this was due to the fact that no thoughts came to mind. What cost? What price? What interference?
These are not questions that I would normally contemplate because I grew up in church. Church is what I do. The Bible is what I live by (as much as humanly possible). I am learning that this is my problem. I so often find myself "doing church" because it's my routine and "living the Bible" because that is what I was taught and "living the Bible" in my own human power because I feel pretty confident in my own power.
I wonder, if I have this type of Christian life, how many others have the same lifestyle as I have? Yet, I digress. Like the old spiritual song, I need to say, "It's me. It's me. It's me, Oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer." My focus should be inward, not comparing my relationship with Christ to anything or anyone except Jesus himself.
So, HAS following Jesus cost you anything? Has following Jesus interfered with your life? Are you giving up your own desires to conform your life to the desires that Jesus has for you?
