I'll try to keep this short...

Rev. G. H. Williams marched with Martin Luther King Jr. He has been pastoring for over 60 years and is still going. He was arrested with King 18 times for civil rights purposes. He was the first colored man to walk into a white restaurant. He was the first black face that was arrested for trying to make a reservation at the Holiday Inn and his children were two of the first children to walk into a white school. He's 84 and still young.

And I got to hear him speak :).  

He challenged us with a question. He said "What, and how much, are you willing to sacrifice for your future?"

He didn't mean 'How hard are you willing to work so that you can live the life you want?'. No, he has seen, heard, lived through, witnessed and tried too many things to ask a shallow question like that. 

What he meant was "How much of yourself are you willing to lay down, how much are you willing to suffer, be persecuted and rejected, ridiculed and criticized, torn up, beaten down, discouraged and ignored, for the sake of the souls in this fallen world?". That's what he meant. 

Funny thing is, we live in America. We have it easy. We're big, over-fed, over-indulged, over-'free' babies. We say it's hard to be a christian in a time like this - all the while sitting in one of our 300,000 churches, sipping starbucks. We worry about our reputation while believers in Nepal and Nigeria fear for their lives. We worry about how that other church is doing better than ours while a three person under-cover bible study is a tremendous blessing in another country. 

I used to pray 'God use me, I am willing' without REALLY having a clue what i was willing to do. Faith without works is dead. Now I pray "Lord, Show me what breaks your heart, and let it break mine." I think...in order for your heart to grow, it has to  break first. And if you SEE through God's eyes the things that need to be done, and KNOW the desperation, you'll know the WHY. And as Jeanne put it; "He who has a WHY to live for can withstand any HOW". 

A washcloth, a toothbrush and a dime. Those were the things Rev. G. H. Williams and King put in their pockets to prepare for another time in prison. They KNEW, yet they still did what needed to be done, just as Christ knew the price He was to pay, and went all the way anyway. A washcloth, a toothbrush and a dime. I think that's part of what Jesus meant when He said 'You must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me". Follow Him, carrying the very thing that will take you to your grave on your back. While the crowd saw Jesus carrying the cross and mocked him, Jesus knew the beauty and power of the cross. He knew the end of the road he was walking. We know the power, the truth, the love and the reality of  the Gospel, so let us deny our selves, and take it to the grave, for everyone to see.