All those school supplies

Jesus, teach me to keep checking on whether I have what I need for school -- and for following you! Amen.

"If anyone comes to me without hating their father and mother, husband or wife, brothers and sisters, they can't be my disciple," Jesus told a crowd. "If you're going to build a tower, you check first to see if you have what you need to finish it, or people will laugh. In the same way, you have to give up everything if you're going to follow me."

School has already started, but a lot of kids are still figuring out all the supplies they need. You can't just buy a stack of notebooks; some teachers want you to use spiral notebooks; others, the black-and-white kind.

Getting ready is a complicated process! That's exactly what Jesus pointed out in this week's Gospel (Luke 14:25-33). People all over were telling Him they wanted to follow Him, but Jesus didn't think they knew exactly what that meant -- or how to get ready.

What school supplies did you have to buy? Most kids need clothes, notebooks, folders, pens and pencils, and sometimes a new backpack or lunch box. You can spend a lot of time buying supplies.

Jesus said that, to follow Him, there's also some preparation. For one thing, people have to put God first -- ahead of their families and everything else.

Jesus didn't mean people really had to hate  their relatives, but He did want them to prepare to give up anything and even go against their families' wishes to follow Him.

School-supply buying doesn't always end with the first day of school; you have to keep checking on what you need. Jesus made the same point about being close to God: You have to keep asking if you have what it takes to do the job right.