yeah - that much.

“A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 'If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.'” - Luke 14:25-26

Hyperbole, derived from a Greek word meaning “over-casting,” is a figure of speech that involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis. You read Jesus' words above and you instinctively know that the One who tells us His commandment for us is to "love one another" certainly is not literally asking us to hate Dad, Mom, your spouse or kids. But He is driving home that our love for Him should be so dramatically more potent, more a priority and of deeper significance to us that in comparison everything else pales in comparison!

So there's your fuel for the day - Jesus is asking you to love Him so much today, to be so committed to Him this day that nothing else comes close. He gets first consideration all day today: What does Jesus want me to do today? What does Jesus want me to say? Where does He want me to go? What does He want me to look at, to listen to, to give my thoughts, attention and energy to? Nothing else is allowed to compete. Everything else must be kept in its place which is ALWAYS secondary to what Jesus wants. He said "Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple." Yeah: He wants that much from you. Rise to the challenge today.