And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. — Luke 9:23
When I was younger, I used to love hearing stories of days of the past. It probably is what ignited my love of history overall. It was so interesting to hear stories of events and things that people did in life long before I was even a thought. Many of those stories involved members of my family.
One that I always laughed about was stories about my grandfather on my dad’s side of the family. He wouldn’t talk about it a lot, but people always talked about how great he was at playing baseball. He played minor league baseball for the Cincinnati Reds, playing with many big names in days gone by. To this day, I keep a picture of his old minor league team in my office that he gave me.
When I asked him about it, he opened up and told me several stories. He shared about the good and bad sides of baseball, but there was one story I will never forget. He shared with me that one day as he played, he hit a home run. As he rounded the bases, he said he knew God wanted him to give up baseball and that soon after, he quit playing baseball altogether.
He told me that day that he had to give up baseball to serve God the way God wanted him to. In the end, God used him in a great way. He went on to pastor a church where many people accepted Christ. Through his ministry, many pastors were trained and still minister to others to this day.
Sometimes we have to give up things for God. It may not be that those things are bad, but God wants us to give them up, so they do not stand in the way of the great work that He wants to do in our lives. Is there anything in your life that you may need to eliminate to serve God fully? God can do great things when we remove things that may be in the way.
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