So often we set limits on our own response to Jesus because of what's happened to us in the past. We constantly try to "fix it" with either guilt or self-justification. Again and again, we go back over unhealed memories or make a determined effort to repeat past successes. We constantly try to atone for the first and draw false security from the second. We make the past a haunting monster or a false idol. In either case, we are still in control and constantly looking back. What we miss is the sublime opportunity of the present and the exciting adventure of the future.

Like this third man, a lot of us find it difficult to accept Christ's forgiveness for past failures. We think there's something more we can do to set things right. It is no less debilitating to hang onto our glories of our past, thinking we have to achieve continued success to qualify for the kingdom. And equally frustrating is our inability to entrust to Christ the future welfare of loved ones. We entertain the idea that they won't make it unless we remain in charge of their destiny.

When we're looking for excuses to resist a commitment to Christ, there are so many worthy things that we can say we must do before we surrender our lives. And after we have committed our lives, it's equally tempting to think that Christ has stopped loving us because of something we've done and that He will return His acceptance only after we complete some act that we've set up as a qualification.

The Joy of Surrendering Our Excuses

We all have our own personal, carefully rehearsed brand of "buts" in response to Christ's hard saying "Follow Me." We don't know what happened to those three men on the road after they offered their excuses, and that doesn't matter. What's important is how we respond. After the three men in our story have turned away, the Master looks at us. Suddenly we know that no excuse will work. We long for the joy and peace that only unreserved response to Him makes possible. And with all our hearts we cry out,

The dearest idol I have known,

Whate'er that idol be;

Help me to tear it from Thy throne,

And worship only thee.2

The Greatest Miracle

I opened with the story of Jim's excuses and final breakthrough to the joy of commitment. Mary's story, though different, also shows what can happen when Christ overcomes our excuses.

"It's got to be a miracle!" Mary said to me after a Sunday morning service. "I've been on a quest for an authentic spiritual life for years. A hunger's been gnawing at me, an anxious longing to know the Lord. But I've been afraid of what it might cost me. I've tried so many churches and so many self-help, human potential groups. Nothing seemed to work. Christ's words "Follow Me" still haunted me.

"A few weeks ago one of your members invited me to come here to church with her. For five weeks I've listened to your invitation to commit my life to Christ. And today I couldn't remain in my pew any longer. I got up, went forward, and accepted Christ's call. Now He is my Savior and Lord. And He's got all of me that there is."

Many people think of miracles as some physical healing or impossible intervention in some problem. For Mary, after all the years of searching and making excuses, the greatest miracle was that she could respond. She had thought it was something she had to do. Actually, the Lord set her free to surrender her life. And with all the resistance of the years, it's amazing that He got through to her so she could hear that she is loved, forgiven, and cherished. And now that she's responded she says, "I feel great all over. It's a real miracle!"

1. "A certain scribe," Matt. 8:19.

2. William Cowper, O for a Closer Walk with God, 1772

From The Other Jesus by Lloyd Ogilvie. Copyright (c) 1986 by Word, Inc. Used by permission.