Obedience has a price

First off, I probably need to apologize for not having a new post in a while. It is probably best summed up in the fact that I've been pretty sick for about 4 1/2 to 5 days now. Anyways, that shouldn't have be an excuse. Onwards with the posting!

I was reading today in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, and he was talking about the cost that other people must endure for us (Christians) to follow God. He brings up the passage in Luke where Simon was chosen from the crowd to carry the cross that Christ was burdened with, on his final walk to the place where he would be hung. Chambers says (in the reading) that:

"If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people's plans are upset, and they will gibe (tease) us with it - 'You call this Christianity?' We can prevent the suffering; but if we are gong to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid."

While reading this and the other thoughts that Chambers brought up, on this particular day of reading for me, I was brought to my own realization. The fact that I want to obey God will cost everything for those that I love the most. I know that this has happened countless times in my own life. I have pushed people away, hurt people with words, and so much more - just because I thought I was doing the right thing at the time. Maybe I was, and then again, maybe I wasn't. I won't really ever know if I don't do all that I know to follow my Lord. . . my God . . . my King. All the sorrow, pain, heartache, loss, frustration, and grief that I have cost to the people I truly care about is in vain if I chose to disobey my God. "When we immediately obey God," Chambers says that "others are affected."

If a life is measured in inches and miles, instead of actions and deeds done for others, then the resounding chorus of a life devoted to following God stretches far beyond the horizon, far beyond the mountains, and far beyond the seas.