Heavy Weight

Have you ever seen the World Strongest Man Competition? I'll never forget watching a 300lbs. man strap himself to a 747 commercial airplane and drag the plane from one point to another. I had dreams once to be in this competition. The only problem I had was being a 140lbs. soaking wet and well....lets face it, roids aren't even going to help this wirey body.

Shear mass isn't the only kind of weight that can be heavy though. Did you know Words can be weigh a ton. In fact there is one word that carries an extremely heavy weight. It's a word that when said makes me exhausted just hearing it....are ya ready?

PROCESS....

Yep, process. Sick huh! You can take 5 if you need to.

I have a love/hate relationship with this word, much like I do with lifting weights. it's often painful during the workout but the results are great!

I loath this word because I am product of this culture. I'm a classic type A personality, living in a fast food, fast internet, get it now, "have it your way" how you want, when you want culture. Process is the last word we want to hear. Sophomore's and Juniors in college know what I'm talking about. You're too far in to quit, but not far enough in to see light at the end of the tunnel.
Have you ever said things when studying for that exam like, "oh wouldn't it be awesome if I could just insert a chip in my head that gave me all the answers!" Or "wouldn't it be great if I could just fast forward to graduation or my new job"

The honest truth is that process is painful. So why then does Jesus seem to emphasize it so much? Why are his statements implicitly telling us to keep going? Wouldn't be easier if he just inserted a "perfect relationship with God" chip in us so that we could avoid the pain?

Did you know that Jesus' most common command was "follow me." He said it over 200 times in the Bible. In Luke 9:23-25 he said something profound:

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross (once in your life? yearly? seasonaly?...oh no wait) DAILY and FOLLOW ME. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?

Do you see it? There's something divine, something heavy going on in Jesus' words...that when lifted brings...life, brings joy, brings purpose. The daily process oriented journey is the point. In fact I would argue that the process of following Jesus is just as important as the destination of the warm fuzzies we look forward to so often in our relationship with God.

The destinations we seek are really more mile markers than and ending point. These mile markers of memorable moments are to be celebrated and remembered, yet we are called to so much more. We are called to the adventure to keep on going, keep on journeying to know and become like the infinite God we serve!

As we can see in Jesus words through Luke, his teachings are anti intuitive. It's easy to pick up our cross once, by praying a prayer for salvation, or going to that cool event, or thinking we have payed our dues. If that's our mindset than we've missed everything!

It's like Jesus is saying:

immediate struggle creates lasting freedom.
But
immediate relief creates lasting struggle, and ultimate death.

the joy of daily process of dying to ourselves brings the abundant life that Jesus desires for us to have in Him (Jn.10:10)

I have a weight lifting buddy who likes to tell me "pain is just weakness leaving the body!" Process is refining and Jesus allows us to journey with him daily as means of knowing and becoming more like him...as a means of worshiping him and marveling over the painful but all so glorius process of giving ove his life so that we may have life.

The process, the journey is extremely weighty when applied. If you don't believe, just go on a roadtrip with some of your closest friends. You just may find that the journey getting there was just as memorable as the destinations you visited.