"Take Up Your Cross" or "Give What's Left Over"?

In a recent interview with Marvin Olasky of World magazine, Tucker Carlson (Editor-in-chief with The Daily Caller) answers the question, “What’s your pitch to those you want to hire?” 

Carlson explained, “I give them all the same lecture, which is: ‘Life is short, you will die. And at the end, you won’t remember a single easy job you ever had. The only job you will recall is the job that asked everything of you—and this is one of those jobs. You may not love it at every moment. We will pay you a terrible, ridiculous, laughable salary. But we will give you all the Pop-Tarts you can eat, and you can sleep in the office if you want. And we are going to work you like an animal. We are the Viet Cong. We are going to march 50 miles in truck tire sandals on a bowl of rice, and we’ll sleep in a tree and get up the next morning, and do it again. This is an all-in commitment.’ And I’d say about 70 percent of the people I interview are looking for the exit. They want to escape.

“About 8 percent start vibrating like a tuning fork. It’s like a dog whistle, they can hear it. They want in. Those are the people we hire. And so far it has worked.”

Carlson calls potential employees to this level of commitment and sacrifice simply to work for a news organization. Yet, think about how we often present the call to be part of the glorious good news-proclaiming body of Christ. The reality of how we go about it is something like this:  "Pray a prayer, ask Jesus into your heart, and then whatever time you have left over, give." 

It is no small mystery that the majority of professing Christians are less-than-excited about serving Christ and less-than-committed. 

Going beyond what Carlson does at The Daily Caller, we who are part of The Daily Joyful Followers should follow the approach of Jesus:  "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25)

Lord Jesus may our passion for you and the good news exceed what we see in Tucker Carlson for The Daily Caller!