So yah..I'm gonna need you to follow me NOW; like now now!

Posted in Guest Bloggers By Nick Smith 1 comments

Hello hello there friends! This is Sesha, filling in for Nick while he’s doing flight training!

So, Nick and I have read this incredible book called “Seven,” (book trailer here), and it’s been really changing us and helping us articulate questions that our hearts have. Questions like:

What are we really doing to show the world that we are Christ-followers?
What by our actions, our words and our love show others, that being redeemed by him is beautiful & freeing instead of withered and hindering?
How are showing love to the un-loveable and the poor, widow and the orphan and our family?

So we’ve been praying and asking, “how can we the Smith's follow you?” And as he answers us, our next question will be: “When?”

Answer….”NOW!”

He’s been saying this since Matthew 4:19-20; in a nutshell he’s telling us to follow him right that second, like now now!

Please check out this writing from Dr. Anne M. Cameron:

      “Jesus' command speaks to us whose lives have perhaps become humdrum, whose discipleship has turned into a business or a chore. We who are preoccupied with nets and boats and hired servants. Jesus speaks to us who have forgotten the power of the One who calls. He also speaks to those of us who do not yet know the radical change of life that is promised. The LIFE that is waiting for us, if only we will follow.

      Jesus' command, "Follow me. Now!" is not asking us to add another task to our already packed to-do lists. Instead it promises us something, and the promise is amazing. Following Jesus gives us a whole new identity, a whole new way of thinking, a whole new way of BEING. Following Jesus is not something that is done in an instant. It is a process.

      It's like jumping off the high dive and then swimming for all you're worth. It's flying by the seat of your pants, not knowing for sure where you will land, but flapping your wings as hard as you can. It's like falling in love, making promises you cannot begin to understand, and then living into them. It is embarking on a path you cannot see. Like taking on the care of another human being, with all its ups and downs, its joys and sorrows. It is a process that begins in a single leap, but takes a lifetime to unwind.

      The gospel tells us Jesus called them so they might BECOME fishers of people. It is a process, the becoming. Jesus calls us as well, so we might BECOME so much more than we are right now. So we might BECOME more loving, more giving, more joyful, more spirit filled, more than we can ever be when we are just minding the family business, or our own. So that we can become, and so that we can invite others to become as well.”