Confession, Part 2

Okay, this is gonna' take some explaining. A couple of weeks ago, I followed a link on Brett and Emily Mills website to Neil McClendon's podcast. (From his church.)

And I loved it. It was a different side of Neil, and maybe that's why I dug it so much.
Neil didn't spend a lot of time on this issue, but he briefly talked about denial, which did something to me. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the fact that I don't deny myself very often. Whether it's what I eat, how I spend my free time, songs I want to play at church... I don't deny myself. That, in turn, led me to a little experiment. Lately, I've been looking for ways to deny myself the things I want (or want to do.) I think it's changing me for the better, but I'm not totally sure that I won't snap eventually and go out in a blazing glory of selfish pleasure.

Maybe some of my seminary pals can help me, but I keep wondering what Jesus meant when He told us to deny ourselves and take up the cross. Was he just talking about denying ourselves our desire to sin or was there something else? Do we get more Christ-like by denying ourselves simple, sinless things?

What do you think?