Give it all

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.  – Mark 10.21-22

There are a lot of things that we can focus on in our Christian life and practice. We all want to live righteously and do right. We go to church. We don’t do the obvious sins like killing and stealing and committing adultery and all that. We give our tithe. Maybe we don’t ‘drink, smoke, or chew, or run with those who do.’ So we feel pretty good about ourselves.

But then this pops up. If you really want to show your faith – sell everything you have and give the money to the power.

It would be easy to just read over that and go on, wouldn’t it?

But I read it and stop to think about it I am challenged at least and convicted at worst. Do we really understand what Jesus is saying here, and if we do, do we do anything about it?

If we want to prove our faith the ultimate way to do it is to carry for the poor. Everything else is relatively easy. This is tough because it hits the hardest place to hit, our bank accounts. Most of us don’t mind dropping our money in the offering box or paying for dinner or those kinds of things, but us giving up anything for others is where it gets hard because it affects our comfort zone.

When this man couldn’t do it he walked away sad. He couldn’t do that. I wonder if we would do what Jesus asked as the ultimate proof of our faith. Could we do it?

I think I’ll just leave it at that for consideration.