Jesus blazed a trail of self-denial and sacrifice. His trail is a path where I find myself crucified, daily taking up my cross in the pursuit of losing my life so that I may find a true life. I lay aside my selfish ambitions and choose to be forever fed by the Bread of Life. I bleed for the one who bled for me and sweat in pursuit of the ever satisfying Living Water. I choose the difficult way, and Jesus makes it well worth it.
Because I know Jesus is worth it, I pray that my words guide people to the same narrow path that few will ever find. There is a temptation to make following Jesus look easy, and so I ask myself if I am attempting to describe the gate as wider than it is so I can appear more tolerant. I also wonder if I ever describe the way as easy and smooth thinking others would be more likely to follow the path with me.
I fear doing this. I fear it because if I describe to others the path to life that I have found as having a wide gate and easy path, then they will never join me. They will see the wide gate and the easy way and think, “This is the path to life he was talking about.” Yet Jesus says the wide gate and easy path is the road to destruction. Jesus led me to this narrow gate and difficult way because he wanted me to know life, and I desire to do the same for others.
Andrew Thomasson 
good post. great reminder.
The truth. Articulately put. Yes!
On Fri, Sep 9, 2016 at 9:09 AM, Andrew Thomasson wrote:
> Andrew T. posted: ” Jesus blazed a trail of self-denial and sacrifice. His > trail is a path where I find myself crucified, daily taking up my cross in > the pursuit of losing my life so that I may find a true life. I lay aside > my selfish ambitions and choose to be forever fed ” >
Beautiful thoughts, and filled with so much truth! It can become tempting for us to begin describing the narrow path as easy so that others will desire to walk it, but though the narrow path can be tedious by requiring us to fully surrender and pick up our cross, it is worth every trial, every tear, and every battle we face, for at the end, we will have everlasting joy with Jesus in a place where freedom, grace, and peace forever abound, which makes the difficult way worth it. 🙂