cost of following Jesus

This morning I read about Elisha and what he had to do to follow God. He had to burn some major bridges in his life to follow Elijah, the Prophet. You see God told Elijah to anoint Elisha as Prophet in his place. Elisha was minding his own business, working in his daily job, just plowing the field, then one day while he was working, Elijah just happened to pass by their field and went over to Elisha and cast his mantle on him, at first Elisha must have been surprised, but he left his oxen and ran after the man of God, probably trying to ask what's going on, but somehow I believe deep down inside of him, he knew that the man of God don't just cast his mantle on any tom, dick and harry. He yelled, please let me go kiss my dad and mom and then come back and Elijah said, what did I do? go back and do that..Elisha knew he had to burn some bridges. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that will never come back again. Elisha had to tear down 3 bridges: (1) his past, he broke the yoke and sacrificed the oxens (2)his family, he took the meat and probably the fat of the oxens, prepared for his parents a good and last meal from him and served them (3) he fed with the same oxen his friends and neighbors. Then he got up and ran hard after Elijah to minister to him. That I believe is what it would cost us to follow Jesus. The greatest example of that is Jesus, himself was told his mom and brothers were outside coming to take him home and he answered back my mom and brothers are those who do the will of God. That's why a lot of our forefathers were able to be used of God in the olden days....it was because they gave up the most precious things in their lives to gain an even better and more magnificent future for them and their families who were at home, many died not seeing that, but if we go back to do research on families with connnections to these forefathers, they are the most blessed and the most tenacious of all families. A hui ho.