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“Enter by the narrow gate…. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matthew 7:13, 14

 
Over the past several weeks, these verses have been rattling around in my mind. I’ve been asking myself how I’ve changed over these last eleven months and in what tangible ways I can identify the differences in my life. Its been a difficult question to answer, but the answer I keep coming back to is this: I am on the Narrow Path.
 
I can honestly say that I am more deeply in love with my Abba than I was at the beginning of this journey. I’ve had to face fears, I’ve had to abandon that which I hold dear, and I’ve had to make the choice to be different. I’ve realized that following the LORD and calling myself a Christian isn’t about being comfortable. Neither is it about conforming to the Christian culture that permeates the Church. Its about being a world-changer, trail-blazer, counter-cultural child of the God who loves us fiercely and wants so much more for us than we could ever want for ourselves.
 
Being on the Narrow Path is a choice, and a difficult one at that. The Narrow Path isn’t our natural default, because we constantly seek to belong, to go with the flow, and to fit into the group. To walk away from the wide road means facing fears of rejection, hardship, sacrifice, and pain. It means stepping out in faith that the One who calls us will provide and that our trust is in Him and Him alone. It means relinquishing control and dying to ourselves for the sake of the Kingdom.
 
 And it is worth it.
 
Its worth the sacrifice and pain and hardship because I’m beginning to see that the cost of obedience is nothing compared to the cost of disobedience. I don’t want to miss what the Lord has for me because I’m more concerned with living an easy, comfortable, and predictable life of my own choosing. I want to live a passionate, wild, on the edge, sold out to Jesus, and crazy in love with Abba life. And He never promises that when we live that kind of life that it will be easy, comfortable, or even enjoyable.
 
But oh, it’s worth it.
 
I understand the parable of the farmer who finds a treasure in a field and sells everything he owns in order to obtain that treasure. Its consuming, a burning obsession, passion that can’t be satisfied by anything less than everything. I caught a glimpse of that treasure this year, and that treasure is the Kingdom of God. And I want it.
 

“I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith- that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
Philippians 3:8-11