Questions you may wish to consider (Or you may choose to totally ignore these questions and make up a new set that suits you and your context. Be brave.) • Can you remember a time in your life when you felt strongly called to something, someone or somewhere, but were unable to follow that call for a reason that you now regret? (Allow time for different people to speak.) • What about in your relationship with God? Have there been times when you felt you needed to respond to God in some way, but the realities of your life prevented you from acting? • How do you feel now about the decisions you made then? • Can you remember a time when you did take the risk of following where you felt you needed to be or go? Was that – in retrospect – a good decision? • Why do you think Jesus asked the young man to give up so much? • Reflect as an individual or as a group about the ‘cost’ of discipleship. What does that mean to you? What might it mean? • Responsibility to family – or the expectations of family – are often at the heart of the most difficult decisions we have to make. Financial security always makes demands on us. It’s all very fine to say that we should just listen to and obey God, but it’s not always clear, is it? Where might there be conflict – for you – between the call of God and the responsibility to family? How do we resolve these questions? • Have you ever taken responsibility for someone who is not from your ‘natural’ family? Why? What happened? • What does ‘unconditional’ love mean, or look like? Have you had an experience of unconditional love? 52
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