You can't have it all...

Once a month, the staff and interns in our region come together for a day long meeting. We spend the morning studying Scripture and then apply what we have learned in the afternoon.

Today's topic involved what we studied back in August, the great ordeal that is described in Revelation 7. While we were studying that passage, we realized that everyone who is wearing white robes has gone through the great ordeal.

So today, we talked about what the great ordeal looks like, in practical terms, on campus. We realize that as campus ministers, we aren't only called to invite widely, we are to invite deeply (i.e. the great ordeal). So that's what we are doing, or attempting to do.

I realize that some of the asks I will present to my students will be hard. Yet, it is so worth it, to take those risks, to make those sacrifices, in order to find the treasure in the field that is worth everything.

I also realize that we can't have it all. We can't have our luxuries and our comforts and also do what God tells us to, especially when Jesus tells His followers that if anyone would follow Him, they will deny themselves, take up their cross, and then follow Him.

And from my experience in the past few years, wholly following Jesus is worth it. Yes, it means that you have to give your life away, but in return, you receive Life that you could not buy or create. It is the Life that makes you whole, it is the Life that is worth selling everything for.