By: Lorraine Eastman, Legacy Pastor
If you have a dog or a toddler, you understand what it means to be followed everywhere. From the time I get up in the morning, Brea, our little Shih Tzu, is by my side. When I get my coffee and have my quiet time on the couch, she sits right beside me and snuggles. If I get up and move to any room in the house, she is right there by my side. I honestly can’t even go to the bathroom without her following me. When I leave for work, she follows the other human around, my husband, and waits for him to slow down in the afternoons where she can crawl into his lap and take a nap.
Following is interesting. I highly doubt we would ever find a college course to teach us about following. Leadership, yes; following, not so much. When was the last time you found a book about followership? Then again, why would you look? The world tells us we need to be leaders, not followers. We need to learn to follow well before we can even think of leading. Yet, throughout the scriptures, Jesus calls us to follow him.
The Greek word for follow, akoloutheō, is used 89 times in the New Testament. In Matthew 4:19 (ESV), Jesus tells his disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” In Mark 10:21 (ESV), Jesus asks them to, “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” In John 10:27 (NLT), he explains that we are his sheep and he is our good shepherd: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” And finally, in Luke 9:23 (NLT), he makes the ultimate call for us to follow him: “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”
How do we not only learn to follow, but learn to follow well? There is an old saying that you should follow your Rabbi so closely that you become covered in his dust. For us to follow that closely, so closely that we are covered in his dust, there must be a cost. To follow Jesus and become his disciple requires that we relinquish control of our own lives and allow him to lead. When we accept his invitation to follow him, we enter into a relationship where he leads and we respond, where he speaks and we obey. Just like Luke 9:23 says, we must give up our own way, take up our cross daily, and follow him.
Fear can be a problem when Jesus says, follow me. Fear likes to whisper that the cost is too great and the risk is too high. Fear wants us to remain in our comfort zones, holding tight to the routines we know and protecting our hearts, all the while keeping us from the life that Jesus wants for us. Fear may keep us safe, but it is not like the good shepherd and will never lead us to a life of purpose that Jesus wants for us.
When Jesus says follow me, it requires courage — not the absence of fear, but a refusal to be controlled by fear. The disciples stood on the edge of this very decision when Jesus asked them to follow him. They had to choose between comfort or calling. Would they listen to fear or Jesus? Peter, James, and John had to choose between fishing nets or discipleship. Matthew had to choose between wealth or God’s plan. Mary Magdalene had to choose between repairing her reputation or total devotion. Every person who meets Jesus will come to some kind of crossroads. Choosing to follow him will cause changes in our lives — from our relationships, to who we choose to spend time with, to who we are when no one is looking. In essence, who we are changes when we follow him.
Jesus does not call us to follow him into a life of emptiness, but actually into the fullness of life. He does not call us away from life, but toward it. By following Him, we are called to empty ourselves of worldly things, while He is filling us to overflowing with the life-giving things of eternity.
Following him is not accomplished in one overly dramatic event. No. Following him happens best in daily surrender. Each day choosing kindness over resentment, faith over fear, prayer over selfishness, integrity over indiscretion, forgiveness over resentment, and serving others over one’s self. Each day offers thousands of different opportunities. If we choose to follow Jesus, these daily choices seem small and insignificant, but they lead to a life of surrender. He’s not calling you to lose yourself, but to find yourself in him.
The choice to follow Jesus is not a one-time opportunity, but something we choose each day. When we wake up each morning, we can choose to allow all the worries of the day to fill our mind and take over, or we can tell those worries that Jesus is going to be our Rabbi today and we choose to let Him lead instead of them. That’s when we hear his call, “follow me.”
Let’s choose to follow Jesus so closely today that, by the end of the day, we are covered in his dust. No need to wipe it off — cherish it!