Free to Follow
I’ve been reminiscing over Mark’s account of Jesus’ movement as he recollects what he heard from Peter.
I just imagine that Mark was so enamored with Jesus hearing the stories that Peter told him along the way. Mark was a disciples of Peter not actually a direct follower of Jesus in the sense that Peter was. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and couldn’t say that he had the amazing privilege of being there to see and hear the movement of Jesus as it happened in the moment.
No matter though! Through his writing, we get the feeling that he’s just grateful he recognized the truth when he did.
As I sit and marinate over Mark’s words of people choosing to follow Jesus, he includes this line about James and John. I’ve already included it in a previous post. They’re together with their father, Zebedee, in their boat, mending their nets, preparing for the next time out to sea. They’re focused on the family business and yet something compelling in Jesus’ invitation is enough for them to drop their net mending tools and follow.
The question that seems to really stump me: why didn’t Zebedee and these hired servants also follow? It led me to this thought:
Not everyone is free to follow.
I don’t think we’ve actually given credit to the mass of people today who actually do want to follow the Lord but have so complicated their lives that they are not free to do so.
Think about it.
If you encountered Jesus today as he was strolling through the countryside interacting with people as he went, he makes eye contact with you and you suddenly hear the invitation: are you interested too? Why don’t you join me in this! I have some life changing things for you to be a part of.
I don’t know about you, but for me, a full 1,000 things would instantly be in my mind about obligations I’ve created that cannot now be abandoned.
My mind would race toward, what’s on my calendar that could be pushed?
Do I have time for a coffee with Christ?
One of the great implications to following Christ comes down to our financial decisions. The more tightly we tie ourselves to slave restraining debt, the less free we are to decide to follow. But then this led me to another striking realizing. This is simply where we need to get more innately creative with our efforts to free us up to tuck and run when it comes to the moments when Jesus invites us into ministry.
When I read that James and John left behind their hired servants, I envision a business that continues pumping while they are away doing their best work and the paycheck still comes.
Can you imagine that!? You being able to say yes to the things that God would have to do through you because your financial obligations had been covered through your previous efforts?
I can’t think of a single person who would not want something of a scenario like that.
Could you imagine being free to follow an opportunity into a missions experience at a moments notice because you didn’t have stringent obligations that restrained you?
That would be incredible!
One of our mind shift moments needs to become the things we can do to free us financially so we can follow the opportunity as the Lord presents them at a moments notice.
I’ve made 100,000 mistakes when it comes to this in my lifetime but the moment that it’s too late to make a change is tomorrow. So long as you’re breathing, there is still time to change your trajectory.
Originally published on https://kevinelworth.live
