Last Sunday Jesus told us that he came to set us on fire.  We learned lukewarm not good enough and that Lukewarm is the greatest enemy to Christianity.  A friend of mine last week asked me a great question, He said, “how do you stay on fire in a world that is always trying to beat you down? And I think today Jesus gives us the answer.  The key word in todays gospel message is, strive. I found out in my study that “strive” in Greek is the same word for “agonize.” Jesus agonized as he gave up his life for all of us.  So the gate is really the cross.   We live in a culture today where many think salvation is easy.  Jesus says’ the gate is wide and many will take the easy road that leads to destruction, the gate is narrow and hard and only a few will take the road that leads to eternal life. There are no loopholes to entering through the gate.  It’s an uphill struggle as we strive to climb this road. There is no easy road around it.  Jesus calls us to strive always, to “agonize” in our efforts to enter through the narrow gate.