One Painful Decision

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 | Lent Meditations

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. -Mark 10:17-22

“Sometimes the distance between where you are and where God wants you to be is the one painful decision you refuse to make.” -Craig Groeschel

I find this to be one of the saddest stories in Scripture—the story of someone who was so close, but was unable to take the final step. In asking a difficult thing of him, Jesus was not being unfair or harsh. In fact, the passage tells us that Jesus “looked at him and loved him.” Jesus had compassion on him. What Jesus asked of the man was only what was necessary for him to leave behind in order to follow Christ. For Peter, it was leaving his fishing nets… and his fear. For Thomas, it was leaving behind his need to be convinced, his need to see and touch in order to believe. We must leave whatever rules us in order truly to follow Him.

What are you holding on to?

Tags: Lent 2010