Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since the new school year has begun around here. Summer is safely behind us and a new academic year is in full swing!
As this new school year continues to unfold, you can easily forget that emergencies can happen very quickly and without a moment’s notice. I guess that’s why no one’s ever scheduled one, huh? Several years ago I had such an emergency of my own—what fun! (Not!) It all started when I was weed-eating the lawn. I love to work outside in my yard. It’s peaceful, solitary work. I usually can’t hear anybody, and nobody bothers me.
My emergency actually began several hours before the actual emergency. Let me explain: I hadn’t drunk a lot of water that day; I was wearing a short-sleeve dark-blue shirt, made out of thick cotton; I hadn’t eaten much; I wasn’t wearing a sun hat, and I didn’t wait to go outside until the end of that super-surface-of-the-sun-hot, Georgia, August day. All of these things culminated several hours later when I almost passed out and had to make a trip to the local hospital emergency room because of heatstroke. Boy, did I feel silly.
Advance Preparation is Key
The doctor, whom I knew personally, chastised me and told me that I could have totally prevented that summer field trip. I learned my lesson well. Now I just leave the yard work to the professionals. They are better
prepared and know exactly how to deal with any problems, also not once has anybody almost fallen out in my yard. Admittedly, my interesting anecdote is a harrowing story about the results of my great lack of foresight, and it’s usually fairly easy to bounce back from mistakes in preparing to work in one’s lawn on a hot summer day, but it’s much harder—if it’s even possible—to recover from a lack of planning in a life without God.
Don’t do it. I wouldn’t recommend it. Come to think of it, neither would Jesus. He said it like this:
“And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Mark 8: 36, 37, NLT).
Count the Cost
As you enter a new school year it’s realistic to recognize that you will be placed in situations—many times—almost on a daily basis—where you may have to make decisions that will have eternal significance. I say this, not to freak you out, but to help you to understand that the best time to decide to do the right thing is before you’re forced to decide! You get it? What I mean is that you have to pre-decide what you’re going to do when you’re put into that pressure-cooker predicament.
Jesus put it like this:
“If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
“Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own (Luke 14:26-33, NLT).
A Penetrating Probe
I don’t know about you, but reading those words from Jesus are like a pail of freezing-cold water directly to your face or like an electric paddle to a stopped heart!
Shocking…and shook!
After taking the time to consider Jesus’ words, I only have one question for you; admittedly, it’s a penetrating probe, but I believe that Jesus would want us to think deeply, seriously, and soberly about living for Him! Here’s the question: what do you need to do in order to count the cost? Let me ask it a different way: what or who in your life do you need to bring into (or remove from) your life? Take some time today and this week to think deeply, pray about, and talk to your spiritual and emotional support people in your life, and then act upon what you have agreed upon! Jesus knew that you would be second-guessing yourself, so He ended this story about counting the cost with this mandate: “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” (Luke 14: 35b, NLT); translation: “Now that you know the right thing to do, don’t make excuses. Do it immediately!”
So as we end our time together this week, I offer you the words that I used to say to my youth group as they were preparing to leave to conquer yet another week, “Vaya con Dios!” Translated from Spanish, that means: “Go with God!” If you go with Him this school year, you can’t fail!
Additional Resources
Youth Alive Portal
Behaving Like Christ
