"But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.' Luke 14:18

An army sergeant said to me once, "There are no excuses – only failures." That message has lingered some forty years later in my brain. The difficulty is not in applying the message to my personal life but fighting not to apply it to other people. There are things beyond the control of the individual that can not be foreseen or planned for. A familiar saying is "stuff happens". Christians are no different than any other people in this world in their inability to control all possibilities. We are to be different in that we understand and are forgiving when others fail when the unforeseen occurs.

The verse above is not about the unforeseen but rather individual choice. The choice is about serving God or serving self. An excuse not to do what is expected is on the same level as a lie. Luke 14:27 – Jesus says, "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." Those who make excuses why they can’t follow Him do so at their own peril. They could if they would but many choose to make an excuse.

Today take a moment and consider the excuses you could make not to do what is right or what is required. Take up the cross and follow rather than make excuses.