The last year and a half, I have been teaching one of the Moral and Religion class in two local schools.  This last Monday, my students taught me. Not in the sense of teaching something new, but more in the sense of reinforcing something I knew and about which I needed to deepen my understanding.

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This year in the local school, we have been studying about the Bible and about the Trinity. This has allowed for other subjects to be addressed while we studied these major doctrines. The last few classes have been about Jesus Christ. Who is HE? What did He do? What should be our response to Him?

Last Monday, we talked about being a fan of Christ or being a Disciple of Christ. A fan is out for what they can get from the object of their adoration. A disciple, however, makes a decision to follow the teachings of a particular person and dedicates their whole life to following that person. In a Christian’s case, this would be Jesus Christ.

Monday’s topic was on the cost of following Jesus Christ. With our text in Luke 14, we talked and discussed what following Christ actually means. Because I know myself the best, I sometimes use myself as an example. (NOT that I am perfect by any stretch of the imagination.) I told them of the cost for my personal following of Christ.

• Three grandparents have passed away while I have been on the field.
• My parents in Mozambique need a lot of help that I could supply.
• My sister was a single parent with two babies while my brother-in-law was deployed with the US Army.
• My best friend has dealt with a lot over the past eight years and I could only communicate by Facebook.
• Sometimes I wish I could be split into multiple people to supply the need for each one!

I am sure if you ask any missionary or pastor who has been in ministry for any length of time, they would have similar stories.

The point of this post is not to have a pity party. The point is, at the end of listing what my personal cost has been, I said, ‘I am here because I love you and I count the cost as worth it to be here.’

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Through the class this week, I learned about myself. Yes, it is painful to be far away from family when painful things happen. Yes, the cost hurts to do what we do. BUT, the reward of seeing just one soul learn about Christ and what He did for them, is worth all of it.

My question to you is ‘Have you counted the cost and is it worth it to be where you are?’