“Are you willing to give up everything you have for the sake
of the Kingdom of God?”
This is a question that was asked by a middle aged man who
has dedicated his entire life to spreading the love of God throughout his home
country of India.
As I sat at my table during lecture this question kept
repeating itself over and over again in my mind. I started wondering what my
life would look like if I truly gave up everything to follow God. I started to
giggle and thought to myself “God would
never ask me to give up everything,” but yet again the question popped into
my head. I felt God specifically ask me, “Joe,
are you willing to give up everything
for me?” I sat in my seat shocked and overwhelmed, not knowing how to
properly respond. I so badly wanted to say “YES God! I am willing to give up
everything!” but my flesh was screaming “NO! I love my possessions and luxuries
more!”
I like to think of myself as simple and relatively easy
going. There are just a few things in life that I truly love and desire. I love
my MacBook, my closet full of clothing, my vast amount of music, my bed, my
HUGE family, and I also love the fact that I can enter almost any store and buy
a Mountain Dew. Ok, maybe I’m not so simple and easy going, but was God really
asking me to give up the few things that I love?
For the next five days I struggled with this question. I
pled out to God saying “God please don’t
make me give up everything. Haven’t I given up enough already?” and once
again God said “Joe, are you willing to
give up everything for me?” I didn’t know what to do. Did God want me to
take all of my belongings and donate them to the local Goodwill and move to a
distant land to be a missionary? Or does God just want me to give everything away
and learn to live like the Amish or something? Well it turns out God wasn’t
asking me to do either of those things. God was simply asking if I was willing
to obey Him when He asks me to do something.
When I was a child my parents would often say to me “I love
you,” and my natural and honest response was “I love you too.” When my parents
would ask me to do something I wouldn’t do it out of fear or guilt, but simply
because I loved them and wanted to show them that I loved them through my
obedience. Why would this be any different with my relationship with God? If I
truly love God like I say I do, then why wouldn’t I obey Him when He asks me to
do something?
No, God has not yet asked me to give away all my belongings,
say goodbye to my family and friends and move to a distant land, but, if that
time comes will I be obedient and say yes to His calling?
Maybe God isn’t asking you to sell everything and uproot to
a foreign destination. But I do believe God is asking us if we will be obedient
to His calling (whatever that may be). I pray every day that my response will
be “Yes Lord, I will go.”
God has not called me to live a comfortable, easy, or normal
life, but He has called me to be obedient in all things.
Joe Thompson
“If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you”
-John
14:15
