If you want to be a follower of Jesus, you must accept you will live an inconvenient life. It isn’t you might have to live an inconvenient life, it is a certainty you will. We all have particular rhythms and structures built into our lives and we don’t want to see them disturbed. I have observed many believers who live lives of little consequence because they never move outside their comfort zone. Comfort is the rallying cry of this generation of believers and it should make every disciple of Jesus sick to their core.
This is the era of the lukewarm, the ones Jesus proclaimed he would vomit out of His mouth (Revelation 3:16). Following Jesus is never convenient. If you want to stay in your comfortable life with its familiar trappings and surroundings, I submit Jesus is not for you.
Everything we do for God will be at our inconvenience. Stopping to talk to your neighbor before rushing in with the groceries is inconvenient. Taking in someone who has nowhere else to go is inconvenient. Giving money to help the poor is inconvenient. Nothing we do for Jesus will ever be convenient and it’s by design. Following Jesus will always cost you something. Contrary to popular teaching today, giving your life to Christ will not result in sudden wealth, health, and ease.
The life of a Jesus follower will always be an inconvenient life. Our selfish motives will ever try and convince us we don’t have time to help or engage in conversation. We’re busy people, and surely God understands that, right? Convenience and Christ-following are diametrically opposed. We are engaged in actual warfare with actual consequences which affect the lives of actual people for all eternity. Life is serious business, it’s not some vacation cruise or race to the top. We have a mission to accomplish and it could not be more important.
You cannot impact the world for Jesus and have your comfort too. If you would reach the highest peaks of service, you will live an inconvenient life. It will be dangerous, and it will be difficult. I like the way A.W. Tozer put it: “We look around for convenience, thinking we can reach the mountain peak conveniently and without trouble or danger to ourselves. Actually, mountain climbers are always in peril and they are always advancing at their inconvenience.”
Are you willing to do the same? Are you willing to advance at your own peril for the sake of the gospel? You can read, study, and listen to the words of God all day long from the comfort of your living room chair. But if it never gets inside of you and compels you to get up from the chair then you have missed the point and I fear you have missed out on eternity in the presence of Jesus. If you want to follow Him, if you would give up everything for the sake of Jesus, then you will face an inconvenient life. Is He worth it to you?