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Pastor Brad's Ponderings |
And whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me ~Matthew 10:38 (NRSV) Anybody else hear “nothing in life is free” when you were growing up? I sure did. With the current state of our economy it seems more true than ever. Everything has a cost one way or another. I got to thinking about this recently as I was helping Dawn out with the garden. If we want food either we need to pay for it by working in the garden to grow our food or we need to spend money to buy food at the grocery store or a restaurant. The alternative would be paying with extremely poor health from doing neither of the above. Don’t we have these three choices with most things in life? Either we pay for it through money, time/effort, or by not having it at all. Some things, like entertainment, might not cost a great deal. Some things, like shelter, cost a lot more. The church is not immune to this phenomenon as well. We, as a faith community, are called to do ministry and that is going to cost us as members of the community. We need to pay for staff or we need to volunteer our time to make ministry happen. Or do we pay the price of lives untouched because we simply do nothing? How many opportunities have been missed because we have been unwilling to pay the price? Jesus never promised that the price would be cheap (he called us to pick up our cross and to follow). Jesus did promise to pay the price for our sin. Jesus never promised to take away the burden, but with Christ the burden is bearable. We are ALL called to serve! We are ALL called to be disciples! For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.. ~Matthew 11:30 (NRSV) Pastor Brad <>< |