Those are wise words from a dear friend of mine. This world has glamorized what it means to be a Christian one coffee stained Bible insta at a time. This world has said you need chacos and an eno to be a Christian rather than a obedient heart and a knowledge of a Savior that loves you so incredibly much that He would be nailed,whipped, and humiliated on a cross for YOU my dear. Following Jesus doesn't look like a hot mug of coffee and an open Bible all the time. In fact most of time it requires you to step, and on occasion leap out of your comfort zone. Following Jesus was never supposed to be easy, but thats why its worth it.
Following Jesus looks like a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Sometimes it's going to Bible studies or raking leaves for an elderly neighbor. Sometimes it's leading prayer for your sports team or teaching a Sunday school class. Sometimes it's you all curled up in your room with some Kari Jobe playing and your Bible open. Sometimes it's traveling half way across the world to bring the Joy of the Lord to people who don't know Him, and sometimes it's writing a little blog about how much you love Jesus. But here's the funny thing, when you seek after Jesus people are going to tell you that you are wrong. They are going to call you self righteous, ignorant, and a bunch of other names that hit you. And they are going to hit you were it hurts. This is the enemy. When you say yes to Jesus, you just said no to the enemy and he doesn't like that. The enemy does not know your future, but he does know your past like the back of his hand and he will use it to get to you. He knows that one person uttering the word self righteous will make you take your blog down for a few minutes. He knows that the words ignorant and stupid will make you think what the purpose of this blog even is. He knows just by having one person disagree with what you have to say will make you question if the Holy Spirit was speaking through you or if even for a moment it was your own sinful words that were uttered.
One thing I've noticed myself doing is shying away from the word I and substituting it with we. I'm hiding behind this word. I find comfort in it. If I gather the world's sin with mine, in my broken head it looks like it's not as bad.
Why do I hide behind the word we? My problem is is I care too much about what people think. I care too much about seeing those likes come up on my lock screen. I care too much about a pat on the back or a "Good job Madison!" I love being accepted and being popular. I love being surrounded by people. But hey I've got news for you Madison! Following Jesus isn't glamourous, it isn't going to get you the most retweets or likes, it's not going to be easy and it probably won't be very popular. But who needs easy or popular when you have the man who spoke this world into existence in your heart. He knows your heart, in fact He has a PhD. on my heart. He knows everything about me. Shouldn't that be enough? It should be, right? But in my fits of brokenness where I let the world win, it is not. It's so easy to choose to be popular. It's so easy to not speak your mind. It's so easy to agree with the world by saying things like, "Yeah, sure, it's okay to have sex before marriage!" or to choose to scroll threw my insta feed twice rather than pick up my Bible. But thats why it's worth it. Nothing good ever comes easy. It's supposed to be harder than anything. It's supposed to rattle you. It's going to get messy, you're going to have tough conversations where people aren't always going to agree with you. But guess what? It's ok. It's ok to not have everyone like you. Most of the time it means you are doing something right. It means the Holy Spirit is moving. If you try to please everyone you are going to create a god that doesn't exist.
But the good news is, my sweet reader, no matter how messy it gets, God will always be right there to pick you up. It won't be easy, but it sure as heck will be worth it when you make it to the finish line and He says, "Well done my good and faithful servant."