If a bear was chasing me, would I give half-effort to running away? I I saw someone drowning, would I give half-effort in trying to rescue that person? We all had to take tests in school, and what happened when we gave half-effort? If we took a job, but only gave half-effort what would happen? Now this list of questions is to get us thinking. Most things in life we should give our best effort, persevere, and see it to completion.Consider our discipleship, our walk of faith. The word “discipleship” comes from “disciple” or a student or learner of a teacher, so “discipleship” is the practice or life of the follower. In Christianity it refers to someone who believes in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and who is a learner of Christ and who strives to live more like Him.In Luke 9:57-62 we see that Jesus is calling us to full a lifetime effort with Him when it comes to following Him as a disciple. This must not—cannot be a half-hearted effort! Jesus specifically speaks to any excuses we might use to give a half-effort to following Him. In this passage, people are following Jesus from town to town, and they want to be His disciples. They want to be His followers. Jesus encounters three different people who want to follow Him, but really, they only want to do it halfway.First, we have a person (verse 57) who comes to Jesus and he claims he wants to follow Jesus “wherever” He goes. Jesus points out that following His is a non-stop commitment, and His followers don’t call anywhere home. There are no breaks in being a disciple. Perhaps he wanted to be ear the miracle-worker; he wanted the prestige of being His disciple; he wanted the comfort that Jesus gives. But he did not want the total commitment. So following Jesus was tough, not what the he expected, and so he opted out.Second, another person (verse 59) came and Jesus invited him to “follow me.” This was the same invitation that Jesus offered to his apostles—and they dropped what they were doing and immediately followed Jesus. Being a Christian means that we follow Jesus. We follow Jesus—period. There are no “ifs,” “ands,” or “buts.” Now this person had a “but.” His excuse was that he has to bury his father. Now we need to carry out our responsibilities.
