I hope that someone, somewhere in your spiritual walk and church life tells you as much. Being a "Christian" is easy. Going to church, giving a tithe, dressing up to show up at 11:00AM on Sunday morning is easy. Checking boxes, achieving those small tasks to be a "good Christian" is easy.
But being a disciple.
Following Jesus to the ends of the Earth, standing up for the ones church people look down on, having compassion for the ones who persecute you, loving a God who doesn't always talk back, standing up for what's right even when society says it's wrong, letting go of what we can't control, changing the things we can, being disrespected and underestimated, being a true minister of the Gospel, an actual Christ follower instead of a Sunday morning Christian is so very difficult.
This shouldn't come as a shock. Jesus warned us.
Yet, in our over-comfortable American life, we are shocked. When people disrespect us our response is, "But I'm respectful and hard-working. Why would you do this to me?!" When people try to tell us what we can and cannot do for the sake of the Gospel we say, "This is the land of God-given freedom! Don't tell me what to do!" We are raised with certain morals and ways of living and when anything goes against those, we are astonished and hurt.
But Jesus warned us. If we follow Him, we take up a cross. If we follow Him, we give up respect and comfort and certainty. If we follow Him, we will be misunderstood and disrespected and abandoned by people of this world, and probably even by the people of the religious world to which we are "supposed to" belong.
The more I read the Bible, the more I empathize with the 12. They didn't know what they were getting into, did they? They were following the Messiah, yes. But I don't think they knew how difficult that would be. They weren't aware of the struggle, loss, pain, and loneliness that comes with being a disciple. They didn't know that they actually had to put all of their faith, hope, and trust in God. Not until it was too late. And then, they had no other choice.
We have no other choice.
In order to be true ministers of the Gospel, true disciples, we have to put all of our faith, hope, and trust in God. We have to let go of our comfort, of our need to please others, of our desire to be respected. We have to sacrifice it all for the love of Christ, for the joy we find when we are fulfilled by the Spirit, for the peace we gain in union with God, for the hope that this crazy world isn't all that we have.
Being a disciple is hard.
But goodness, if it isn't worth it...
"Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”"
-Matthew 8:18-22 (NASB)
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
-Romans 5:1-5
