Counting the Cost

"When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” - Luke 18:22

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple." -Luke 14:26

The Cost of Following Jesus - Matthew 8:18-22
 ¹⁸ When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹ Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
 ²⁰ Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
 ²¹ Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
 ²² But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

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Last night was one of the worst nights I can remember, and this morning is not much better. If you're not a dog lover, this may not make much sense, but if you are...you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. About a year and a half ago, after years of waiting, we bought our first dog, Peanut. We searched long and hard but instantly fell in love with her. We wanted her to be a therapy dog, so we immediately enrolled her in obedience school, worked with her daily, and trained her to be a very obedient dog. I adore this dog.

Then, last night, we got horrible news that Peanut had bitten a neighborhood kid in my parents' neighborhood. She is staying with my parents right now, because we're going out of town later this week. We don't know the whole story. There is a lot of speculation, but the fact of the matter is that she bit a child, and the child had to go to the emergency room for stitches. My parents seem to be more concerned than the child's parents, so that has been a blessing. The other kids who were there seemed to think that Peanut was just playing. However, the ramifications of this episode are difficult...to say the least.

Before we ever dove into this foster care adventure, we studied the book, "Radical." If you haven't read it, you should...or maybe you shouldn't if you don't want your life to be flipped upside down. The premise of the book is that as Christians, we have watered down Christianity, settling for a life of comfort when, in reality, we need to be willing to sacrifice everything we have in order to follow Christ. He may not ask us to sell our homes, give away all of our money, or move away from our families, but...he may, and we need to be prepared and willing to do so.

Reading that book, my husband and I felt challenged, but after diving into Scripture, we realized the Truth of that message, and since then we've been dealing with it in our own lives. Are we willing to sacrifice everything to follow Him? Have we placed any idols before the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we willing to pray difficult prayers, surrendering every facet of our lives to Him.

The answer is a resounding yes...take my car, Lord, if you need it...take our home...take all of our money! But wait...I never imagined that I might come up against this scenario...potentially having to give away my dog? I'm tearing up just typing those words. I guess I'm realizing that that was one thing we had certainly not surrendered. That was something we were holding onto tightly - off limits for God.

We don't know how this scenario is going to play out. We're still reeling from the news, and the next few weeks of decision-making will be a roller-coaster, I'm sure. After about 24 hours of tears and anger, the answer is yes...we will certainly surrender Peanut if she holds us back from following the Lord's leading to be foster parents. The question now is...do we really have to? Every minute I have a different answer.

Pray for us as we face more and more spiritual warfare. I'm pretty sure there's no other word for all of this. Satan is hitting us right where we hurt the most...over and over again. But, as the words of the song that just came on Pandora state, "Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God You are higher than any other, Our God is Healer, awesome in power, Our God, Our God...And if Our God is for us, then who could ever stop us...And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?"