What is the cost of followship? Everything. What is the cost of obedience? Absolutely everything. —Hoisting absolutely everything onto the altar. Even the unthinkable. Placing it on the altar in times of joy and in times of distress. Even when you dance beside the altar, rejoicing in the opportunity to give an offering. Even when you clutch the altar afterward and don’t know the words to pray. Even when you lay your head on the altar and just have a good cry. It all must go. It all must be placed on the altar. It all becomes a pleasing aroma.

In that moment as you watch it burn, it may feel like something is being taken from you. Or maybe you’d like to just take the sacrifice off for just a minute longer to say goodbye. To grieve for just a minute longer. But you know your feelings betray you. They are but a passing wind, strong as they may be. His promises have not changed. You can cling to His assurance that it is indeed a pleasing aroma unto Him.

The joy and the free-will offering. To the altar.

The sacrifice and the suffering. To the altar.

The hours and years of lamenting. All to the altar.

And the aroma rises.

And even as you wait for the peace, the resolution, in the silence…

The aroma rises unto the Worthy One.

As you watch it burn you know deep down that the offering never belong to you in the first place.

It may have been a beloved lamb. The best you could offer.

But it was never yours.

It doesn’t have to be a pleasing aroma to you. It’s a pleasing aroma unto the Lord.

He is Worthy.

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Romans 12:1.