The Cost of a Life Lived in Indulgence
In recent weeks I’ve been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s, Little House in the Big Woods with my five year old. Despite the hardships of living off the grid, before there even was a grid, Laura and her family felt content and secure in their snug little cabin with their dog, Jack, standing guard and Pa’s loaded gun over the door. When she tells of her aunt and uncle along with her cousins coming to stay with them for Christmas, there’s no hint of the frustrations endured by the Griswolds in Christmas Vacation, yet they all shared one modest space with no indoor plumbing. On Christmas morning when the children woke to their stockings filled with new mittens and a candy stick, they were genuinely excited. I don’t know how the majority of children I know would respond to such a meager Christmas offering, but I imagine most of them would be at least a little disappointed.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe we adults are so unlike our children. Sure we may recognize the pitfalls of their frequent, unreasonable demands, yet we run from the simplicity of days gone by and invest hefty amounts of our energy in pursuit of a life of indulgence. We might smile coyly at the sound of the word, indulgence, as we recognize it’s appeal. Who doesn’t at least consider what it might be like to indulge without limitations? In my mind, true indulgence smells of chocolate on a luxurious, ocean breeze with not a care in the world to disturb me. By definition, to indulge is to allow oneself to enjoy the pleasure of…and that “of” being whatever pleases you. To occasionally indulge is not usually the issue, depending on what we’re indulging in, but living a life of indulgence is not just carefree, but rather careless. It’s the difference between eating a dessert after dinner or eating dessert instead of dinner, until you’re actually sick.
In Luke 9:23 NIV, Jesus says to his disciples: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
I have personally read this verse numerous times, but never took the time to consider what it truly means to deny myself and take up my cross? In the New Testament, Matthew (16:24-26), Mark (8:34-36) and Luke each record these words, and anytime something is repeated three times in the Bible, we should take note, because God feels it’s important and is trying to hammer it in for the slow learners like me.
As a health care professional, I prefer Luke’s account. Being a physician, he was the only one who specifically quoted Jesus as prescribing the listeners to take up their cross daily. If I’m being prescribed something, it’s important to know how often, especially when we’re talking about taking up a cross, which sounds like it could be rather cumbersome.
So what does all this mean? If I call myself a Christian and acknowledge Jesus as the son of God, isn’t that like denying myself and taking up my cross? If we look at the context of the verse, Jesus calls everyone to him, including his disciples, to tell them, whoever wants to be my disciple, this is what you must do. So why is it the disciples couldn’t sit out on this one or run off to fetch dinner? Weren’t they already following him? Weren’t they already good with the denying self thing? They had left their family and jobs to follow him. Yes, they were following him and they had made some sacrifices to do it, but time and again we see the disciples demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of Jesus and what he was trying to teach them, they often struggled with their faith and at times behaved with absolute self-interest.
When we first start walking in our faith, the acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord and Savior is a perfect starting point, but denying ourselves speaks to something bigger, something deeper that comes with maturity and at a cost. It’s about committing our life to Christ, not just portions of it. It’s easy to jump on board with a cause when we can do it at our leisure or on our own terms, but when God calls us to a task that requires a commitment to take up our cross daily, things get more challenging. Denying self is often all guts and no glory, though done willingly with heart and integrity. It’s a vital component of our walk of faith. There is little we can accomplish for God without some understanding of this truth. Pursuing a life of indulgence focuses our energy on what we want and how we feel, with little regard for what God expects from us and the people he has called us to serve. This life really isn’t about us and it wasn’t until after the Spirit of God came upon the disciples that they finally understood this, took up their cross and began to truly walk in faith.
