What must I do?

 I've been doing some in-depth study of the book of Mark for the past few months or so. This is a gospel that has many chapters and passages that I've read through multiple times since I was a little girl in Sunday School, yet I'm still finding lessons in it that are so applicable to my life today it's as if they were just written or I was reading them for the first time. That's the amazing thing about the Bible. It's lessons just never. get. old. Anyway, that's a sidenote of this blog. Today I read in Mark 10. In this chapter (vv17-22) is what's known as the parable of the rich young ruler. To summarize a young man approaches Jesus and asks Him, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?". Jesus begins by telling him to follow the commandments, which the young man promptly responds that he's done since he was knee high to a grasshopper (ok maybe not those exact words). I imagine this young man giving himself a mental high five that he's already been doing what he needs to do to live eternally. Jesus wasn't done yet. He goes on to tell this young man that there's something he hasn't been doing, at which point I imagine the young man's face falling and maybe his palms starting to sweat a bit. If he felt some anxiety in that split second before Jesus revealed what he was lacking it wasn't unfounded, for Jesus was basically about to ask of him all that he had. Literally--" '... go and sell all you possess and give to the poor... and come, follow Me.' But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property" (vv21-22). As I was meditating on this passage God reminded me that this young man had asked how he could secure for himself eternal life. I would consider that maybe the biggest existential question anyone could ask. This man felt he had found the one Person who could answer that question (and rightly so). Yet when he heard the answer he actually rejected it.  Y'all, REJECTED it. As in Jesus told him how to live forever and he turned it down because he was too rich.  I'm stunned at the audacity of this young man to turn away from his Saviour for temporary riches. After all, he seemed so genuine in the asking of his question, and even Jesus seemed taken with him (the text mentions that Jesus felt "a love for him ". That's mentioned right before Jesus gives him the bombshell answer that shook him.). If I were to be honest I have to admit my first reaction was to judge the man for choosing the temporary over the eternal. However, in my experience God doesn't let me get away with judging anyone for too long, even if it is a man in a story in the Bible. Instead He turns the tables (Ya know, the whole "if you point one finger at someone else you've got 5 pointing back at you" sort of thing) and begins prodding me to search my own spirit for how I may be like the one I've judged. I found God asking me how many times a day I chose my own agenda over that of His kingdom. How many times a day does He ask me to participate in the eternal work of His kingdom in being a representation of His Son to someone else and I opt for the very temporary activities of life (and that can be anything from taking a nap instead of making a phone call to someone needing encouragement to scrolling through Facebook in a few spare minutes that I could be praying; and that's just a couple of the many examples of how that looks in my life)? Thinking about this is sobering to me in much the same way Jesus' answer must have been sobering to the rich young ruler. Y'all I seriously thought I was past the point where this passage really applied to me.  After all, I've already chosen Jesus and His kingdom. Game over, right? The thing is God hasn't called game over yet. He knows I'm still in need of lots of transformation because I will so often chose the things that are temporarily satisfying (like choosing a McDonalds cheeseburger over a professionally prepared filet mignon from a Michelin star restaurant) over what He has planned for me on a day to day basis. I'm just grateful Jesus feels a love for me the way He did the rich young ruler as I keep turning to Him to show me a better way.