Follow Me:Day 1

[Meditate on Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 4.18-22. What is he looking for?]
Here we go! Thank you for joining the conversation. As I read and meditate on Matthew 4.18-22, I have to be reminded that Jesus didn’t evaluate those that he called with the same criteria that the rest of the world does. These disciples were the “not good enoughs” in the eyes of the world, but Jesus saw something in them. I wonder if he saw in them a willingness to learn–they were teachable. Maybe they had within them the child-like faith that Jesus was so interested in–the willingness to trust, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense. Perhaps he saw a sense of obedience within them.
I sense as well that he saw in them a cry within their hearts for something bigger than themselves. Maybe this is why he invites them in this particular way: “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” Fishing for people is definitely bigger than fishing for fish. Did they understand what Jesus meant? I think that when Jesus calls us to follow him, that maybe when we truly hear that call, it excites something within us, that sense that we are about to enter into what we were truly created for–that we are about to enter into something bigger that our hearts have always longed for. Of course, this is where the battle takes on a new slant, as now we have to face the fears of losing the comfortable life that we’ve built, living for something or someone bigger than myself means I have to move away from living for my self. That is hard to talk about, let alone do, but the disciples did it–and so can I. How do I know? When Jesus issues the invitation to be his disciple, its because he knows that I can do it, I can become more and more like him. Whether I feel like it or not, I have to believe that he’s right, don’t I?

Questions I am pondering:
Do I have a teachable heart?
Am I willing to trust Jesus, no matter what?
Am I willing to go where Jesus goes and to do what Jesus does?
Am I willing to stop living for myself and start living for Jesus and others?
Am I willing to risk my kingdom of comfort for something bigger, and probably better?
Am I willing to keep asking questions?
Why does Jesus think that I can be like him?
Do I really believe what Jesus believes about me?

Please feel free to add your own questions, comments, or other thoughts.

Let’s talk.

PS as I write this, I am listening to a song that seems to resonate with where many of us might be as we take these first steps:

Oh brother I can’t, I can’t get through I’ve been trying hard to reach you ’cause I don’t know what to do
Oh brother I can’t believe it’s true I’m so scared about the future and I wanna talk to you
Oh I wanna talk to you
You can take a picture of something you see In the future where will I be?
You can climb a ladder up to the sun
Or write a song nobody has sung or do Something that’s never been done
Are you lost or incomplete? Do you feel like a puzzle, you can’t find your missing piece?
Tell me how do you feel?
Well I feel like they’re talking in a language I don’t speak And they?e talking it to me
So you take a picture of something you see In the future where will I be?
You can climb a ladder up to the sun
Or write a song nobody has sung or do Something that’s never been done, do Something that’s never been done
So you don’t know where you’re going and you wanna talk
And you feel like you’re going where you’ve been before
You tell anyone who’ll listen but you feel ignored
Nothing’s really making any sense at all, let’s talk
Let’s talk, let’s talk, let’s talk
We need each other don’t we.
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Category : Following Jesus