Just scanning through Luke, I read over the passage where Jesus talks about the man building the tower who could not finish it. (Luke 14) Do we really realize Jesus is here talking about a commitment to Him?
What do we think about when Jesus says, "If you want to follow me, consider it at length, don't just jump in, I'm not some rumbling bandwagon for the cool kids, I won't be just another cool design on your t-shirt, this is life changing, life breaking stuff we're dealing with here." What we as Christians must come to terms with, especially when reaching out to others to tell them the Good News (and by all means, let us do this much more) that this is what we're asking of others and hopefully ourselves. This isn't a once a week chore. This isn't so you can look cool, be cool, think you're cool. This is about the breaking apart of everything you once were.
Jesus says to the crowd listening to him, many who would soon be denying they had ever owned a "Jesus is my Homeboy tee", if you're not able to go the whole way, don't start, because if you do, and you can't everyone's going to look at you and laugh. "Hey look, there's that guy with only half a house!"
Yet we all try real hard to look good in our half finished castles. It leaks a little, but if you look at the right angles, it seems really great! That's what we're doing with our lives. That's what I'm doing with my life.
A lot of us on hearing Jesus tell the rich young man to sell all his possessions to the poor or else he just can't come, like to immediately start doling out the excuses. "It's only because that was his god, I don't love my stuff as much as he did so I can keep it all." Was that really the heart of what Jesus was saying? And if it was, how many of us really aren't that attached to our stuff? How many of us flip the channel when the starved, beaten, and destitute children come onto the television? How many of us have more than one of those televisions in our house? But, we need those right?
Many of you are probably pointing your fingers at me right now, listing everything I have. And to that I say, thank you. I need to be reminded of my own personal hoard as much as the next guy on the pew.
Jesus told us, if you live like he lived you would be hated, persecuted, and even brutally murdered. In fact he went a step further and said, if everybody around you likes you, compliments you all the time, and everybody at work asks how the kids are doing, you better watch out because you're likely messing everything up.
Let's stop making excuses for ourselves and for others. Jesus certainly won't give or take those excuses and we all know it. Can we rally as a body of brothers and sisters and hold each other accountable? Can we point out, in love, saying, "You need to love your wife more, you need to stop gossiping, you need to give more, take less". Can we be mean enough to love each other?

Today, let's truly live like Jesus. Our homeless King of Kings.