The Life of a Disciple

"The life of a disciple of Jesus is no spring picnic. To follow Jesus does not mean we modify our lifestyles a little here and a little there, allowing us to look at out inner mirror and say, Not too bad - for me. Its more like the analogy C.S. Lewis give us in Mere Christianity:

'Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.

But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abdominally and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of -- throwing out a new wing here, put an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.

You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building up a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself'."

From Faith on the Edge: Daring to Follow Jesus, Paul Tokunaga ed.