Begging Him to Leave

I've started reading the New Testament again. I read a bit every day and (as of yesterday), I decided to write a verse down that particularly stood out to me, and then write a reflection about it. I hope you don't mind that I'm sharing today's with you. You don't mind? Oh, good.

"...the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district." Matthew 8:34

Life with Jesus is hard. Hard because your life ceases to be your own. No longer can the things of this world be the end-all-be-all. Jesus demands that we leave everything behind when we follow him. Even family attachments have to come second when we answer his call. This puts us at odds with this world and beyond its comprehension. It's almost as if the world is saying, "We like you, Jesus, we really do. But would you tone down things a bit?"

In Matthew 8, Jesus has just driven out two demons--and at the same time made it safe again for people to travel in that area. He should be praised as a hero, like Theseus or Hercules were when they vanquished monsters. But he allowed the demons to possess a herd of swine--which caused them to plunge into the sea, where they drowned. So, driving out demons? Good. A bunch of drowned pigs? Bad.

Thanks, but no thanks, Jesus.

When Jesus starts messing with our livelihood...our stuff, we don't like it. "Just leave us alone!", we cry. Leave us with our problems, our weakness, our sin. We can live with that. But challenge our beliefs, our worldview, or way of life? Never. In fact, our response to Jesus is the same as Jesus' response to the demons: "Leave, get out!"

Jesus asks nothing short of everything. Our entire beings. And in this world, those who follow him will appear very foolish. But when we give him our everything, he transforms us. He gives us everything we need in this life. And everything we desire in the next.

Go ahead. Call me foolish. But I'm sticking with him.

What is holding you back from giving everything to Christ?