Sometimes Following Jesus Sucks

By nearly every account, great portions of my life have resulted in failure, and honestly being a
failure sucks. No matter whatever method of evaluation I may attempt to employ on any given
day, the result always returns with a near pin point replication, Sorry Mike, you suck.
While some of my bigger fans may take great joy in my condition of suck, others seem to want
to needlessly provide some unrequested form of spiritual sav in the form of some random Bible
verse.
Throw some of that Jesus juice on that wound Mike, keep it covered with prayer, and in two or
three hallelujahs it will be all betterTrust Me Brother!!!
To those well-meaning people, please stop.
So how, might you ask, could an ardent disciple of Christ utter such blasphemy out into the
social media consciousness?
Havent we (Christians) spent our lives telling the sinners that if they would only believe and
Commit their lives to Christ that life would be super-duper awesome and prosperously filled
with dew drops and rainbows?
Arent I betraying the faith and the Evangelical party line?
Crap probably.
Heres the problem.
Sometimes following Jesus sucks, and whats more, Jesus is very well aware that following Him
often sucks.
Want some proof?
Talk a look in Scripture how Jesus responds when people approach Him looking for an invite to
be His disciple.
You may be shocked to see that more times than not Jesus intentionally works to dissuade people
from making such a decision. In fact there are a handful-and-a-half of parables where Jesus is
telling stories to crowds to redirect their decision to want to have anything to do with Him.
Its a fact Jack.
But wait a minute. What about what the pumpkin faced preacher says on television? I thought
God wants everyone to get themselves to heaven right?

What ever happened to that Bible verse, For God so loved the world or something?
What about that?
Good question. For the answer I suggest you get a Bible and keep reading.
Let me help.
Take a look at Matthew 16.
In verse 24 we find Jesus finishing up with His beat down of Peter the Apostle (Yes of Roman
Catholic fame!). Peter wanted to stop Jesus from submitting to a pretty horrific impending
death, and Jesus would have none of that. A Satan insult and a reproach later we come to verses
24-26 NIV:
Then Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever
loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet
forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
Wait a minute where are the rainbows and butterflies? Where is that Joel O ummm whatever
guy who said that Jesus just wanted me to rock out with my stuff out and get down with
everything this world had to offer? Someone Lied To Me!
Yeah my friend someone did, but as I had to come to terms with myself, it wasnt Jesus.
For those of us born here in the old USA, this Jesus talk about deny themselves, crosses, and
losing our lives sounds absolutely insane. Someone must have the wrong version of the Bible
here, where is that Message version?
I know, it sounds crazy to me too. Trust me I do.
You see, although I have finally come to terms with Gods desire for me to speak into the
American church, I was born and raised here too.
Virtually evicted from the birth canal of American patriotism; I willingly drank the American
Kool Aide, I ate the delicious McDonalds Big Macs, (A lot of Big Macs) I slurped my corn
filled Wheaties submerged in Wisconsin dairy cow milk, I bought American, I voted (when I
was 18), I protested, I debated, and I internalized all that is America.
I was so bought in that I even wanted to be Alex P. Keaton (Family Ties Style Yo!) when I grew
up.
Uncle Sam dripped from my very DNA, and then at the very worst available moment in life
something happened.

Jesus decided it was time to kick in the front door of my very nice American six bedroom house
on the lake.
Okay, so why does it suck to follow Jesus?
Someone like me, Mr. Seminary Summa Cum Laude guy, Mr. Christian Man should be like all
of the Evangelical poster child commercial guys from the local mega-church right? Why arent I
smiling all the time?
Because I am a disciple of Christ, and I live in America.
You see there is a GIGANTIC Christian principle that we have lost here in the land of milk and
honey.
Its called suffering.
And although I study, consider, and talk about suffering all the time; it is still as undesirable to
me as it probably is to you.
Wait a minute what about all the things I have gone through you may ask (That is if you know
my story)?
Its a good point; however it is the wrong point.
Because at the end of the day there is still America racing through my blood, and sadly it is the
worst part, its the achiever American blood cell. It is the part of America that tells me that if I
dont reach certain personal benchmarks, if my bank account doesnt have enough zeros
following a 1, if I dont have a title, a position, professional respect, havent been here or there,
done this-done that, have some letters after my name, or have an impressive retirement plan, then
I and my respective life is a failure. Its time to go on Prozac!
Man What a Big Wasted Life!
You may want to argue with me here, but from behind my computer screen I will just call bull
crap so lets not waste time.
So thats why Im pretty much a failure, and Im not really smiling about it.
It tears me up right down to my Captain America Underoos! I hate it. I struggle with it. I want
to grab my lifes failure and triangle choke it until I can stand up and be the Mike Andrus MMA
champion again. I want to win, because loosing sucks!
But thats not the way it is.
And whether you realize it or not God understands.

Trust me, He knows.

He was right where I (and maybe you) am (are), and He does not dismiss the pain, the
disappointment, or the frustration.
In fact, He honors our struggle.
You see this is why Jesus wanted the trial disciples to think long and hard about becoming His
disciples. He knew that following Him often sucks.
So if you find yourself screaming at God, arguing the case that you have done everything He has
asked and yet you have become a big fat failure; recognize that you are in welcome company.
Remember, if we were to judge the life of Jesus (He did die on a cross homeless and penniless
after all), all of His disciples (They all got killed too), and a great number of the original church
fathers and mothers lives (A great majority got slandered and then killed) by the standards of the
old USA; I dont think we would find a bunch of winners.