Follow Me

A Reflection on the Gospel for September 4th, 2022:
​Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Luke
14. 25-33

Large crowds were travelling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate their father and mother, spouse and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even their life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

“Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.

“So therefore, whoever of you does not give up all their possessions cannot be my disciple.”

I completely understand why a lot of people find this reading hard – but for once, it feels like Jesus is speaking my language! I’m a planner by nature: I work as an executive assistant, planning everything from travel to meetings, and I’m known personally for my organized approach to even the simplest friendly get-togethers. Our family’s budget is kept in an Excel spreadsheet to make it easy to track money in and out.

So when Jesus reminds His disciples that they need to count the cost of following him, I’m right there with Him. Let’s think this through! To follow Him, he’s asking for all of my possessions. For me to carry my own cross. To give up my entire life…

This is a big ask, even for a type-A obsessive planner like me. I remember vividly the long bus ride home after my conversion – I had about two days to figure out how becoming a follower of Jesus was going to change my day-to-day life. I was tempted by the most obvious option: tell no one, deal with zero embarrassment or consequences, and let this whole Christian thing fall to the wayside.

Abandoning the newly-found faith that was sustaining me was tempting because I knew I’d be facing real consequences for my conversion. My kind-of religious family would think this was very weird. The friends who knew me as aggressively atheist would tease me for such a dramatic change. The Christians I’d previously persecuted would understandably be skeptical.

What did I do? I planned! Specifically, I wrote a short testimony. I didn’t have any formal instruction on this, but it came naturally to me. I was one kind of person, then I met Jesus, and now I’m a different kind of person. I thought of the kinds of accusatory questions I used to ask Christians and tried to prepare myself to answer them. And I prayed that people might be accepting of this radical change.

In many ways, it went better than I expected. The people I’d previously persecuted were overwhelmingly happy for me to have found God’s love. My friends were surprised, but mostly happy that I was happy. My family thought it was weird, but they continued to be loving and supportive.

It hasn’t always gone perfectly, and I’ve had people who have been bothered by the fact that I’m Christian. (My favourite was a university professor who told me I seemed too smart to believe in something so ridiculous!) But I try my best to come prepared – to believe Jesus when He warns us that not everyone will be accepting, and to have straightforward answers ready to explain what I believe and why. As He taught in the Beatitudes, I try to rejoice when someone is genuinely hateful or cruel. After all, that was me once!
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I’m still working on giving Him everything. That’s not the kind of thing you do once – it’s a lifetime of effort. But there’s no one else I’d rather follow.




Jenna Young​

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