Peter began to say to him, “We have given up everything and followed you.” // Mark 10:28
One of my best friends fell madly in love with the Lord when she was in high school (she had a holy youth minister named Beth Davis). She is a creative, missionary spirit with as many spectacular earrings and thrifted jackets as one could imagine. She will likely tell you about her many adventures in South Africa, about how Jesus is not afraid of your questions, or about the latest magazine she has been binging.
When she and I are together, we love to talk about what young adulthood might have looked like if we had never met the Lord. It is not challenging to imagine how she would have been a blast to party with in Miami. I have no doubt I probably would have joined her. I wonder about a boy I chased much of college who would not commit to me solely because of my religious convictions. We ponder about friendships that perhaps could look differently or how our reputations have forever changed. As we curate the alternate stories of what could have been, we always realize that we gave up a version of our life to live for the Gospel.
Surely, I have not given up everything the way the Apostles did to live life with Jesus. Yet, for my little twenty-three-year-old life, some days it feels like more than I bargained for.
Still, I am deeply consoled that there is no sacrifice, big or small, that Jesus does not see and honor. I am convinced that no version of my life I have given up was worth having because life with Him has been worth absolutely everything. Most of all, I have real hope in the promises of Heaven, of Eternal Love, even when I can only see it in part.
Even when I am last, especially when I feel last, He will consider me first—I can anchor my life here.
Father, grant us deeper faith in the promise of Your abundance.
He will consider me first. // Sarah ElizabethClick to tweet
Sarah Elizabeth is a graduate student studying International Security. She earned her Bachelor’s in Politics from The Catholic University of America, and now resides in the Washington, DC area with her cat, Regina. Originally from Arizona, Sarah treasures iced oat milk lattes, mountain views, and Saint John Henry Newman.
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