Unrealistic Demands, or Unwilling Hearts?

I watched a couple of youtube videos of Jeff Bethke's earlier last week, and I keep on thinking about them. The spoken word video is about idolatry and putting other things above God. It's clear, blunt, and cuts to the heart of the matter. In a different video when he's talking about his heart behind the first, he explains how we easily fall into a lie. We criticize Jesus for demanding all of us, yet we freely give our all to so many other things. I've been thinking a lot about this duality and I'm asking God to show me where it might be growing roots in my life so we can root it out together.

Because really, think about it. No matter what you are doing, something is demanding your all. I don't care how many things you've got going on, there will always be at least one (if not multiple things) in your life that you are willing to make some huge sacrifices for. But those sacrifices held next to your devotion and passion for whatever, whoever you're sacrificing for pales in comparison. It might be for your career, your sport, your family, your ministry, your instrument, your travels or many other things or people. But the point is that we all have things in our lives that we would happily make sacrifices for  in other areas and go to huge extremes to become successful in, experiencing and enjoying these things to the full.

So why do we have such issues with Christ insisting that HE has to be that thing if we're going to get serious about following Him? He's fully aware that something in our life will become all-consuming, demand most of our time, thoughts, energy, money, words and actions. So why do we find it so offensive that He asks to be put in that place? It seems to me that our anger should be directed towards ourselves being unwilling to meet what Christ asks for us than at Christ for asking so much. Because if it wasn't Him asking so much, it will always be something else, something we probably wouldn't give much thought to before a willing "Yes" response. It only seems fair to me, since we are in that place for Him, and we demanded His all when He came to restore our relationship with Him. It's not as if He's asking anything of us that we haven't already received from Him. And He's told us whatever is given up for His sake will be restored and returned to us many times over. He promises that when He is in that place in our lives, it will be worth our while. Life with Him in control isn't some hum-drum, passion-less, adventure-less, uninspiring, place to be. Not that it's always easy, but ease and comfort wasn't ever part of the deal. What was part of the deal was a life that's completely worth it, full of His blessings and eventually rewards in Heaven.

And I think I can definitely live with that. I'm just still trying to figure out how that looks in a practical, daily sense. 

What does that look like for you?