When we choose Jesus, we sign up for the greatest adventure we’ll ever know. We enter into the dearest of love stories. We get the best friend anyone could ever have the privilege of knowing. We get peace. We get victory. We are adopted into a family more royal than the longest line of succession. We get the promise of a forever home. We get love. When we surrender our hearts to Jesus, we get a perfect Savior. We get more than we ever could have imagined, but we also say yes to the most difficult of journeys. We take on His life, the pain of it and the cost of it.
Chris and I have been watching The Chosen. It’s exciting to see Scripture come alive, albeit their interpretation of it. But it’s getting harder and harder to watch. I know what Jesus means when he describes to the disciples what’s going to happen to him, even though they don’t yet. I watch the character playing Jesus wrestle with what’s to come. I see the pain in his eyes. And even now after all of these years of knowing the Scripture, I think to myself that there had to be another way. There has to be another way.
I’ve found myself often thinking the same thing in my own life. There’s got to be another way, but that seems to be consistent with The Way. It’s kinda what we signed up for. The word amen in the Greek is “so be it.” It’s a declaration of agreement…resolute and absolute. I have a plaque on the wall next to my desk. It has five lines on it of the phrase “so be it.” It’s the handwriting of everyone in my household. It’s all five of us saying we’re all in. No matter what comes. The promise takes longer than we hoped…so be it. The situation looks impossible…so be it. The giants are monstrous…so be it. The furnace is hot…so be it. The pit is deep…so be it. Fourteen years of back-breaking mobile church…so be it. A tumor takes your voice…so be it.
When I said yes to Jesus, it wasn’t just for the fun and games of it. It was for better and for worse. I don’t always like the price but following Him is the best place to be. He has the words of life. Without Him I’d be “trying to find healing in all the wrong things. Thinking I knew about freedom with chains on my feet…all rhyme with no reason, all me with no meaning.” My final word when I draw my last breath will be a hardy and fully aware…amen. God, I trust you so completely. You are worth it all.
“Amen when the brook dries up. Amen from an empty cup. Amen when there’s not enough…Amen from the wilderness. Amen from the lion’s den. Amen when there’s nothing left.”