In Jesus most dramatic moments in ministry: in the center of Jerusalem with crowds welcoming Him and gathering to hear Him teach, His followers stumble. Jesus is serious. He warns them of the details of His death the night before and changes the tone of the Passover meal in a big way. But even with the warning, Jesus followers are lazy–falling asleep instead of praying and running away from the guard, rather than joining Jesus in His persecution.

Those followers were such losers!

and yet…so am I. I often do dumb, lazy, selfish things right after my best moments. I fail to take Jesus seriously when He would desire me to most do so. And I am no more worthy of His love, loyalty or forgiveness than these followers.

But God loves me anyway. He still keeps me close to Himself.

And its that love that compels me to focus my time, attention, and resources on being an awesome follower of Jesus, for as much of my life as I can. And despite my failings, we are doing pretty well.