Choose Your Hard
Choosing Your Hard: The Real Cost of Following Jesus
We all have morning routines. Some are chaotic, filled with the screams of young children and the desperate search for matching socks. Others are carefully orchestrated rituals—coffee first, then everything else. But beneath these daily patterns lies a profound truth: what we do first thing in the morning often reveals what we're truly giving our lives to.
The question isn't whether we'll give our lives to something. We will. The question is: what will it be?
The Uncomfortable Truth About Discipleship
In Mark chapter 8, we encounter one of Jesus' most direct and uncomfortable statements about what it means to follow Him. The context is crucial: Jesus and His disciples are walking toward Jerusalem, just weeks away from the events we now call Holy Week. Peter has just had a breakthrough moment of clarity, declaring Jesus to be the Messiah. Finally, the disciples seem to get it.
Then Jesus explains what being the Messiah actually means.
"The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed, and after three days rise again."
Peter's response? He pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Him. The same Peter who just correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah now tells Jesus He's got it all wrong.
Jesus' counter-response is shocking: "Get behind me, Satan."
What happened? How did we go from a spiritual high point to such a devastating low?
When We Get Jesus' Identity Right but His Mission Wrong
Peter understood who Jesus was but completely misunderstood what Jesus came to do. In Peter's script, the Messiah was supposed to be a conqueror, someone who would take the seats of political and military power, who would use authority to overcome enemies and establish dominance.
Sound familiar?
We still make this mistake today. We can correctly identify Jesus as Lord and Savior while completely missing what His mission is actually about. We want Jesus to take over certain places of power in our world. We want Him to align with our political agendas, our economic systems, our cultural battles.
But Jesus keeps saying, "My kingdom is not of this world."
The truth is, it's remarkably easy to get Jesus' identity correct and still misunderstand what His purpose is all about.
The Cost of True Discipleship
After correcting Peter, Jesus gathers the crowd and lays out what following Him actually requires:
"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."
Let's be honest about what this means.
Denying yourself isn't about giving up chocolate for Lent or cutting back on social media for a few weeks. It's about taking your entire agenda—your script for how life should go, your understanding of what you deserve, even your sovereignty over your own life—and surrendering it completely to Jesus.
It means saying, "I want what You want, Jesus, more than I want what I want."
And taking up your cross? In the first century, that wasn't about wearing a cute cross necklace or getting a cross tattoo. It was about picking up your instrument of execution. Jesus was telling His followers to be prepared for the hardest possible road.
This is not easy Christianity. This is not "say a prayer and your life gets better" theology.
Following Jesus is hard work.
The Hard Truth: Everything Is Hard
Here's what we need to understand: no matter what you give your life to, it's going to be hard.
Marriage is hard. Raising children is hard. Building a career is hard. Pursuing wealth is hard. Nursing an addiction is hard. Chasing success is hard.
Following Jesus is also hard.
The question isn't whether life will be difficult. The question is: which hard is worth it?
Because here's the difference: when you give your life to your career, it's hard, and at the end you realize your kids don't even know your favorite color. When you give your life to accumulating wealth, it's hard, and you end up with a full bank account but empty relationships. When you give your life to success, it's hard, and you discover that no one on their deathbed wishes they'd spent more time at the office.
But when you give your life to Jesus, it's hard in a different way. You have to lay down your agenda for His. You have to surrender your plans to His kingdom purposes. You have to deny yourself and pick up your cross.
But this hard leads somewhere.
Where Does Your Hard Lead?
Jesus continues: "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it."
The hard of following Jesus leads to a place where Christ returns and sets everything wrong with the world right again. It leads to a kingdom where every tear is wiped away, where disease and sickness are gone, where all things are made new. It leads to living forever with Christ in His eternal kingdom.
The hard of giving your life to anything else? It all goes back in the box eventually. There are no U-Hauls behind hearses.
So choose your hard.
Both roads are difficult. But only one leads to a destination worth the journey.
What Are You Really Giving Your Life To?
If you're unsure what you're truly giving your life to, try this simple exercise: look at your calendar and your bank account. They'll tell you the truth about your priorities.
Maybe you've been calling yourself a Christian for years, but if you're honest, Jesus has been more of an add-on than the substance of your life. He's been the ketchup you put on top, hoping to make the flavor a little better, when He wants to be the actual meal.
The good news? You can change that today. Not by trying harder or doing more, but by surrendering more fully. By asking Christ to help you live a life completely given over to Him.
Will you mess up? Absolutely. We all do. The question isn't whether you'll make mistakes. It's whether, when you do, you get back to trying to live your life fully for Christ, trusting that His grace covers all your failures.
Following Jesus isn't easy. But it is good. And it's worth every bit of the hard.
So choose your hard wisely. Because you're giving your life to something either way.
We all have morning routines. Some are chaotic, filled with the screams of young children and the desperate search for matching socks. Others are carefully orchestrated rituals—coffee first, then everything else. But beneath these daily patterns lies a profound truth: what we do first thing in the morning often reveals what we're truly giving our lives to.
The question isn't whether we'll give our lives to something. We will. The question is: what will it be?
The Uncomfortable Truth About Discipleship
In Mark chapter 8, we encounter one of Jesus' most direct and uncomfortable statements about what it means to follow Him. The context is crucial: Jesus and His disciples are walking toward Jerusalem, just weeks away from the events we now call Holy Week. Peter has just had a breakthrough moment of clarity, declaring Jesus to be the Messiah. Finally, the disciples seem to get it.
Then Jesus explains what being the Messiah actually means.
"The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed, and after three days rise again."
Peter's response? He pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Him. The same Peter who just correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah now tells Jesus He's got it all wrong.
Jesus' counter-response is shocking: "Get behind me, Satan."
What happened? How did we go from a spiritual high point to such a devastating low?
When We Get Jesus' Identity Right but His Mission Wrong
Peter understood who Jesus was but completely misunderstood what Jesus came to do. In Peter's script, the Messiah was supposed to be a conqueror, someone who would take the seats of political and military power, who would use authority to overcome enemies and establish dominance.
Sound familiar?
We still make this mistake today. We can correctly identify Jesus as Lord and Savior while completely missing what His mission is actually about. We want Jesus to take over certain places of power in our world. We want Him to align with our political agendas, our economic systems, our cultural battles.
But Jesus keeps saying, "My kingdom is not of this world."
The truth is, it's remarkably easy to get Jesus' identity correct and still misunderstand what His purpose is all about.
The Cost of True Discipleship
After correcting Peter, Jesus gathers the crowd and lays out what following Him actually requires:
"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."
Let's be honest about what this means.
Denying yourself isn't about giving up chocolate for Lent or cutting back on social media for a few weeks. It's about taking your entire agenda—your script for how life should go, your understanding of what you deserve, even your sovereignty over your own life—and surrendering it completely to Jesus.
It means saying, "I want what You want, Jesus, more than I want what I want."
And taking up your cross? In the first century, that wasn't about wearing a cute cross necklace or getting a cross tattoo. It was about picking up your instrument of execution. Jesus was telling His followers to be prepared for the hardest possible road.
This is not easy Christianity. This is not "say a prayer and your life gets better" theology.
Following Jesus is hard work.
The Hard Truth: Everything Is Hard
Here's what we need to understand: no matter what you give your life to, it's going to be hard.
Marriage is hard. Raising children is hard. Building a career is hard. Pursuing wealth is hard. Nursing an addiction is hard. Chasing success is hard.
Following Jesus is also hard.
The question isn't whether life will be difficult. The question is: which hard is worth it?
Because here's the difference: when you give your life to your career, it's hard, and at the end you realize your kids don't even know your favorite color. When you give your life to accumulating wealth, it's hard, and you end up with a full bank account but empty relationships. When you give your life to success, it's hard, and you discover that no one on their deathbed wishes they'd spent more time at the office.
But when you give your life to Jesus, it's hard in a different way. You have to lay down your agenda for His. You have to surrender your plans to His kingdom purposes. You have to deny yourself and pick up your cross.
But this hard leads somewhere.
Where Does Your Hard Lead?
Jesus continues: "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it."
The hard of following Jesus leads to a place where Christ returns and sets everything wrong with the world right again. It leads to a kingdom where every tear is wiped away, where disease and sickness are gone, where all things are made new. It leads to living forever with Christ in His eternal kingdom.
The hard of giving your life to anything else? It all goes back in the box eventually. There are no U-Hauls behind hearses.
So choose your hard.
Both roads are difficult. But only one leads to a destination worth the journey.
What Are You Really Giving Your Life To?
If you're unsure what you're truly giving your life to, try this simple exercise: look at your calendar and your bank account. They'll tell you the truth about your priorities.
Maybe you've been calling yourself a Christian for years, but if you're honest, Jesus has been more of an add-on than the substance of your life. He's been the ketchup you put on top, hoping to make the flavor a little better, when He wants to be the actual meal.
The good news? You can change that today. Not by trying harder or doing more, but by surrendering more fully. By asking Christ to help you live a life completely given over to Him.
Will you mess up? Absolutely. We all do. The question isn't whether you'll make mistakes. It's whether, when you do, you get back to trying to live your life fully for Christ, trusting that His grace covers all your failures.
Following Jesus isn't easy. But it is good. And it's worth every bit of the hard.
So choose your hard wisely. Because you're giving your life to something either way.
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