Following Christ
13 Sep 2009
Did you know what you were letting yourself in for? When you ... said you would teach Sunday School, help with a church roster, serve on Church Council, do some other ministry ...?
Most people have a kind of bemused awareness that the job turns out to be bigger than they thought (or were led to believe). But most of us grow with the job and the challenge.
Following Christ is the same, only more so. We do not know what will happen. It is the great life risk – to let someone else take complete charge of our life. Many of us have struggled with this – we want to know what it will be like, we want to negotiate some guarantees in advance.
Following Christ is not all walking in the dark. He said it was walking in the light – since he was the light of the world. And he did give some clues to what following him was like.
The wind blows where it wills, you hear the sound but don’t know where it comes from or where it goes to – it is like that with those who are born of the Spirit – sounds a bit unpredictable and insecure!
Those who follow him are also on a dangerous road. His road (and therefore the road of his followers) goes via a cross. Via a cross, not just to a cross. In fact you can’t start on the road until you have died to yourself at the cross. Even then danger awaits. But the most secure security is to walk the road with the great Guide.
We don’t know what we are letting ourselves in for, but but we do know who we are travelling with. We can try to protect our own security, to guard out life ourselves. But it is not the same as travelling with him on his road.
Dale