Are You Willing?

For a God who gave as our God gave, are you not willing to give all you may give, to Him? Are you willing to never have a home, a ‘real’ job, a family, or any form of security for this life? Are you willing to give up the praise of men, so easily received, though only by following this pattern of the ‘American Dream’? Are you willing to give up the pursuit of knowledge, the pursuit of your dreams, the pursuit of all earthly pleasures? Would you never feel the love of a spouse, never know the pleasures of sex, never to care for, never to be cared for, so tenderly? Will you have children, only to endanger their lives, to watch them bleed, to watch them die? For such was Jesus the child of God, bleeding and dying upon a cross, for your sake. Will you go, to bare the pain of watching you spouse and children die a painful death, that you may return to tell their story? Though unspeakable sorrows would surely be known, though a quick death, a quick end to such pain, would surely be desired, would you press on? Will you give up what you cannot keep, to gain what you cannot lose? Will you always, under all circumstances, rich or poor, loved or hated, in comfort or bleeding your very last drop of blood, will you always praise the Lord? At times of pain, at times of weakness, through depression and desperation, persecution and plague, will you look ahead to the eternity to come? Will you look upon the things of this world with disgust, by comparison to the everlasting things to come? Will you lose your life that you may save it? Will you now give all you can, your hobbies, your entertainment, your every little joy, that you may draw nearer to God? Will you give up food and drink and sleep, that you may feel the hunger, thirst, and desperate longing for your Father? Will you ask, will you seek, if such things may be His will? Will you wait, will you listen, for if you are called to such things? Are you truly willing?