The Old Jew

Our bs leader asked us the question, "What would you give up for God?". We are doing Beth Moore's study of Esther and all week I've been asking myself that question. As I open the container of Trader Joe's Dark Covered Chocolate Espresso beans-could I give those up? My favorite bottle of wine? My home? My car? Job? Heat? My favorite Uggs? Blogging?
The kids...ALL of them? James, the one who has wiped me before I was even in the nursing home (tmi-I know)?
I know that Mordecai put a lot on the line not bowing down to Haman. Lets face it though, the relevancy of an old Jewish guy doesn't really play out in our Land Rover suburban world...or does it?
Last May I gave up wheat and dairy...I'm not gonna lie...it sucks. I didn't do it for God though. Last year James and I chose to give of ourselves in opening our hearts and home to a new baby (no pat on the back required, just mentioning as an example)....that we felt like we did do for God. The thing of it is, when you're giving up something for God, in my experience, it hasn't felt like a sacrifice...until that thing starts crawling, pulling laptops onto the floor, taking steps from a soft couch into a hard coffee table, paying double for babysitters...you get the drift...NOW its beginning to feel like sacrifice. I don't know, as Mordecai paced the gates to check on Esther and her well being as she waited to see the king, maybe that wasn't such a sacrifice since he seemed to already be there. But when Haman told him to bow down and he refused, wasn't he putting his reputation, his job...his life on the line?

If everyone I knew and all I had burnt to the ground, would I still praise Him?

Good question...hope I never have to answer it, but will practice doing just that in the little things (like the hair loss and the broken scale-it MUST be broken...:)!

I may have to make a t-shirt that says Going Bald for Jesus..it may catch on and now we've come full circle, bringing us back to the old Jew...he had to have been bald...

What would you give up? (besides this blog...:)