The first statement in The Cost of Discipleship is a quotation that says Jesus wants us to come to him and die. It is a little surprising at first. First sentence!
I didn't always understand this idea. I thought of it as a right of passage or something to that effect. You have to acknowledge that Jesus died and you then also mentally sort of put yourself in his position, as if we can really understand, and then submit your life, etc. etc. etc.
As I get older and more into this faith thing ... it isn't at all like role playing, and it definitely isn't empty words ... and it surely isn't motions. It is more like a day when you realize that what you just did, how you just dealt with someone, how you didn't choose what you used to choose--and on that day, within a split second you also realize that in that split second there was way more Jesus in that action or thought than there was of you. And on that day, you are dumb-founded ... you sit back in your chair or stop in your tracks and really believe the Holy Spirit is at work in you.
