One of my all-time favorite songs was written by David Crosby just before the new millennium. Sherri and I heard the song live in Atlanta in 2002. Later that same year, my kids gave me a Christmas present based on that song. It’s the well-known picture of the Chinese student standing before an oncoming tank in Tiananmen Square. On a gold plaque at the bottom of the picture are the words to Crosby’s song, “Stand and Be Counted.” A nice sentiment but not so easy to do.
It’s a lot easier to take the broad path. The fact is most people do. Jesus told us they do. He also said that the broad path leads to destruction while the narrow path leads to eternal life, or what has often been translated, the life of the ages.
We tend, as Christians, to define eternal life as life after death, often discounting the importance of life before death. In John 17:3, Jesus describes eternal life like this - “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Eternal life begins the moment we enter into a relationship of trust with God through Christ. That relationship is seen most clearly in the choices we make and the lives we live. Disciples of Jesus are called by their Lord to pick up their crosses and follow him, another way of saying they die to themselves, which usually means dying to the world’s way of living.
A good friend of mine recently made a choice to do just that. (And by the way, it’s a choice we make over and over again.) After retiring from a highly successful military career, he was offered and accepted a prestigious and lucrative position in a major U.S. bank. After a good year or so, my friend realized the heavy toll his job was taking on his family. He was perceptive enough to see that his role as husband and father was not only diminished but taking a back seat to his career. He wisely chose to request a transfer to a less lucrative and less prestigious position in the bank. As a high achiever all his life, it was not an easy decision.
For those of us who are followers of Jesus, to stand and be counted means to choose the narrow path that so many in our world reject, even despise. That choice may, at times, feel like standing in front of an oncoming tank, but it is a choice that ushers us into the life of the ages, the abundant life that Christ promises.
Are you facing a life-changing choice? Is there a fork in the road of life stretching before you? I want to urge you to choose the narrow path. Stand and be counted as a follower of Jesus.
In Christ,
Dan
Die to self each and every day. Not easy, but thats the call. Knowing that one day He will say “Well done my good and faithful servant.....enter into your masters joy”.