The Beggar

There is a great urgency in Christ’s words. And he isn’t trying to shame us or guilt us. But he is trying to provoke a real and urgent response.

Yeah, maybe we’re not off in some distant land committing awful sins. Yeah, maybe we are just doing what everyone else in our community is doing. But maybe we are in just as bad a spot anyway.

Jesus isn’t trying to draw a crowd. He isn’t trying to win a popularity contest. He wants disciples, not fans.

Humility is not some weird meekness, and it’s not self-deprecation. Humility is embracing the truth of who you are. And who you truly are may not be as clear to you as you think.

Following Jesus and entering the “narrow gate” does not happen by accident. What can we do to follow him?

We are not called to try to do incredible things every day, but to do little things with great love. These little “acts of sabotage” are precisely the method which will bring down the Enemy.

The hardest part of Christianity? Definitely the waiting. But the waiting is the key to it all. We wait for the Father to provide what we are incapable of providing ourselves.

Is Jesus just harping on money again? Is he just giving us more rules? Or is he leading us to a fuller life? Rescuing us from a life that cannot promise us anything that lasts?

In our desire for the One that will truly satisfy, Augustine emphasizes exercise. There is a need for persistence and consistency in prayer. It is through prayer that this desire is exercised.

There are so many things that demand our time and attention each and every day. And often we are left in the daze of their incessant demand, in an anxious concern about what the next day will bring. And this leads to forgetting the one thing necessary, the one thing our life, our heart needs.