Truth or Dare

When I was a kid, we used to play Truth or Dare.  It was not a board game, a video game, or a television show, it was just one of those time-fillers that we would participate in when our mothers told us to 'go out and play.'  The concept of the game was to make your opponent have to either tell some deep, dark secret or do something that would be daring.  The important thing about the game is that you need to stop playing it when you are about  10.  The deep, dark secrets at that age are fun and innocent.  They ask thing like 'Do you like so and so?' or 'Would you 'go with' so and so?  Kids of that age today ask, 'Would you date so and so?', however, thankfully, that means very little to most 10 year olds.  For us, boys, the dare was always to climb a tree 'way up' or jump a ditch on our bike or ring a doorbell and run or something else 'daring.'  It was a game that kids played with a tinge of fear, but a flood of anticipation. 
Today we read in Acts 20 of Paul playing 'Truth and Dare' or 'The Dare of Truth.'  He is going to Jerusalem because God is leading him there, but he has already been told by the Lord that it will not be easy.  In Acts 20:22 Paul explains it like this:   And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, ²³ except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. (www.lifejournal.cc)  You will find in coming chapters that Paul does face difficulty.  He is warned more than once by folks that also have felt the trouble brewing and have heard the Spirit's voice of confirmation concerning it.  Yet, with all of that, Paul continues on. Why?  There is a task at hand. 
If you really want to accomplish something for Christ or to make your life count for the most for Christ, there will be difficulty that comes along the way.  It will not always be easy. You may face matters of  hardship.  God, however, will pave the way for you to make a difference and to grow you in Him, if you will surrender your ways to His.  His Will for you will require you to walk away from 'pet sins' or those habitual sins that you often try to justify away.  His Will will require you to give up some of your idols, whatever they may be.  Our idols today are typically not golden, lucky charms but instead are matters that concern our schedule, our spending, and our mental focus.  What means the most to you?  Those matters can easily be idols.  It could have been easy for Paul's idol to be the comfort of staying with those that he loved and those that loved Him.  However, Paul cast any such idol aside and continued on for Christ, no matter what may come.  So must we.  For us it may be more of a game of "Following the Daring Truth", however, when we chose to trust God completely, we are winners, no matter what.   Win today!  Throw all others aside!