What are you thinking?

"One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Esau said to Jacob, 'I'm starved! Give me some of that red stew!' (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means 'red.')

'All right,' Jacob replied, 'but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.'

'Look, I'm dying of starvation!' said Esau. 'What good is my birthright to me now?'

But Jacob said, 'First you must swear that your birthright is mine.' So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn."

Genesis 25:29–34

Jacob apparently wanted the firstborn's rights and was looking for a way to get it. He seized his opportunity when he saw that Esau would do anything for some food right now. Esau had his eyes only on the now; Jacob looked to the future. Esau lost, Jacob won. Esau never even seemed to understand what he'd just done. But Jacob would remember. Are your decisions made with an eye to what has lasting value, or only to temporary pleasure?

First things first

"Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, 'Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.'

But Jesus replied, 'Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.'

Another of his disciples said, 'Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.'

But Jesus told him, 'Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.'"

Following Jesus means putting him ahead of all else, from our own comfort to social obligations. There is to be no, "first let me …" situation. Are you truly following Jesus? It's not an impulsive decision. It needs to be made after soberly counting the cost. It's not going to be easy, Jesus warns. But it will be worthwhile, because he's the one leading. Remember that you are following Someone—and that it means he will be with you. It is not just a way, it is a person.