In this weekend’s passage of the Holy Gospel, Jesus gives all of His followers, including us, some tough news!!! What He says is this…if we REALLY want to be His follower, to walk in His footsteps, then we must be ready for the “hard stuff.” He goes on to see that following Him will not be a “bed of roses” or a “walk in the park.” Just as Jesus suffered and died for what He preached, we must be ready for the same. Oh, it’s true that we might not be asked to physically give our life for our faith, but there are other kinds of dying that will definitely be in our plan. Namely, being a Christian means to daily die to our selfish tendencies. In fact, disciples of the Lord Jesus are expected to live the Gospel of love to an extreme! True disciples of Christ are extremely compassionate; they are: willing to visit the sick in hospitals, the incontinent elderly in nursing homes, and AIDS patients in hospices. True disciples of Jesus areextremely humble; they are able to see that every good gift comes from God alone, and that personal talents and resources should inspire gratitude, not pride. True disciples of Jesus are extremely patient; they are committed to working with challenging children, adolescents with problems, and young adults who are struggling with their faith. True disciples of Jesus are extremely forgiving; they are willing to forgive not just once, or twice, but again and again, because they know that God has forgiven them again and again. True disciples of Jesus are extremely loving; they put no limits on their love. And true discip0les of Jesus are extremely faithful; they are all about living out a committed, trusting relationship with God, and with all others in their life. Wow!!! This is big-time demanding and we certainly know from experience that we won’t always do this perfectly, but this is one of the great things about being a follower of Jesus…He is always open to us starting over AND He is always eager to forgive our failures. We can’t ask for more than that! Michael Slaughter in his book, Unlearning Church, tells about a religion editor from a local newspaper who came to his church to interview him about a conference they were having. At the end of the interview, he asked if she went to church. He assumed she did, since she was a religion editor. She said, "No, I am a Buddhist. I was raised in the church," she went on, "but about ten years ago, I became interested in Buddhism because the highest value of Buddhism is the value of compassion." Michael Slaughter says her next comment made him feel as if she had put her hand in his chest and squeezed his heart. "The people I grew up around in the church," she added, "were some of the least compassionate people I ever knew." "Ouch," says Michael Slaughter, and then he adds, "Yet Jesus is compassion made visible." And he's right. Jesus is compassion made visible. Having Jesus' name, but not his heart is a dangerous combination. It can make us turn away people that Jesus is calling us to embrace. GOSPEL QUESTION FOR THE WEEK: Are you ready to take on the hard things for Jesus?