sacrifices...

If you look closely, you can see the chicken by the left gate. Luke LOVES to chase chickens!

Isima found a new use for the M&M's tube!

Jolie loves shoes! She is a girl after my own heart!

Super cool Esther. This is her smiley face!

Everyday I’m here, I feel a little more at home. It becomes a little less foreign. Now, that’s not saying that I don’t still miss COLD tea, ice, Ziploc bags, Bunny bread, corn dogs, shorts, air conditioning, hot water, and my car! By no means am I that good! But the idea of living away from the place where I grew up and am proud to be from becomes a little more doable. A friend looked at me Monday and said “When it gets hard, you have to look at yourself and say why am I here?” That thought has resonated with me. Since then, when I whine about not being able to drink a Sam’s Super Burger tea I think, “Why are you here?” The reason I am here, is worth more than my car and independence. It’s worth more than my weekly tv show. It’s worth more than feelings of normalcy. I don’t know about you, but I got spoiled in my old day to day life. When I had fun plans, I could go buy a new shirt. Now I just wear whichever v-neck I happen to grab for the day (This blog really should be called Living Life One V-Neck To The Next). Or when a new movie came out, I could go with my Momma to see it, and buy popcorn, and buy an ICEE, and buy Sno-Caps…okay so maybe she bought all those things! Or when I wanted to spend time with the friends I cherish, I could get in my car and go to dinner with them or make a road trip to New Orleans. Rarely, was I ever limited in doing what I wanted to do.

I don’t say all that to make you feel guilty, please don’t think that. It’s just something I’ve been processing through. I am reading a book called Not A Fan. by Kyle Idleman. My Bible study group at Friendship Baptist Church is reading it, so I thought it would be neat to read it with them. It is rocking my world, thank you Bro. Teddie for choosing this book! In the second chapter, Idleman talks about the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night because he is too afraid/embarrassed to come to Him during the day when he might be seen by one of his religious co-workers. Nicodemus could have lost his job and his reputation would have been destroyed had his co-workers at the Sanhedrin found out about him going to see Jesus. Idleman says “Being a secret admirer of Jesus cost him nothing, but becoming a follower came with a high price tag. It always does.” See, I am convinced that although we haven’t all been called to live in a foreign country, we have all been called to live a life so in love with Christ that sacrifice is inevitable. It doesn’t look the same for you as it does for me. The movies we watch, the music we listen to, the words that we read and say, our actions to other people, and the way we carry ourselves all ought to matter and bear the resemblance of sacrifice. Because I know one thing for sure, I am not a super-human Christian force. If Jesus only asked some of us to make sacrifices, I’m pretty sure He would have skipped right over me and moved on to the next person! I whine way too much and I am way too stubborn! So I challenge you, to look at your life and see if you are making sacrifices. I know I will be. I have so many areas of my life that I simply don’t want to discuss with Jesus, because I know He is going to ask me to get rid of them. So together, let’s make a commitment to sacrifice where sacrifice needs to made. I am praying for you.