“Then He said to them all; “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
I am reading the book ‘Not a fan’ by Kyle Idleman and just began reading Chapter Ten yesterday. The author shared of the time he was in the gym working out on an elliptical machine that faced a large window and he was looking out at the parking lot while working up a sweat. His eyes focused on a ‘large’ man getting out of sedan and reaching back in to grab his gym bag and throw it over his should and then leaned back into the car and brought out a blue cup with a red spoon. The man slowly walked to the curb finishing the last few spoonfuls of his DQ cookie dough Blizzard on his way to work out. He was committed to working out but was unable to give up his Blizzard. This struck me as such a wonderful comparison from today with the above reading from Luke. Too often we say we want to follow…and we will follow…but please don’t make me give up that red spoon.
Last year Trinity/HOPE began their Matthew 25 Project which was a new way to prayerfully find new donors to help sponsor a school in the Les Cayes area and their commitment would only be $25 a month. Fifteen of us are now donating thru the Matthew 25 Project and this week we received our initial report from the Carmarc School and the photo today is from that school. For me, that $25 each month is like my ‘red spoon’ as it was the price of my favorite pizza that I decided to stop eating and start helping to feed kids at Carmarc instead. Jesus says to all of us, “take up your cross and follow me” and his disciples left behind their ‘red spoons’ and became His followers and often referred to themselves as His slaves. If you are one of the 15 donors, thank you for joining me and if not, please take the ‘red spoon’ out of your mouth and think about how many Haitian kids could be fed each month for the price of a few of those red spoons each month.
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you…Jay