Follow Me

     So much of the journey forward involves a letting go of all that once brought us life. We turn away from the familiar abiding places of the heart, the false selves we have lived out, the strengths we have used to make a place for ourselves and all our false loves, and we venture forth in our hearts to trace the steps of the One who said, "Follow me." Excerpt from the book Sacred Romance pg 149. Italics, mine.
 

     Follow me…..this is the call of the Lord, It isn’t about where He is going as it is about who it is we are following. But beware, any doubt we have of His intentions towards us will render us incapable of following Him. Jesus  said, “If any man would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me". To be sure, it is only in denying our self and taking up our cross that we are enabled to follow Him.

Psalm 51:6 behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

     Jesus is the truth and we can only walk with Him to the degree we are willing to walk in truth, not lies or deceptions we have embraced as truth. Sometimes that will mean that He has to expose through His presence the lies we are holding on to, often places that have become comfortable and familiar even though the reality is, they are a source of death and not life.
 

     There are times when Jesus says to us, “follow me” but where He is going isn’t really a place we want to go, unless our desire to be with Him exceeds our desire to stay away from the place in our heart He is headed. But how often upon hearing those words follow me does our mind go to a place that is physical, a place that is external outside of our self? The idea that following Jesus means being a missionary in Africa (though for some that might be the case) or you think of some situation or circumstance you have been avoiding, when all the while Jesus is going to a place in your heart that is keeping you from experiencing the life He died to give you.

 

     Being in a place recently where it seemed I couldn’t find Him (can you relate?) is the reason this meant so much to me. I couldn’t find Him because where He was I didn’t even realize existed, let alone embrace going there with enthusiasm. Then in my desperation to find Him I was open to  where He was, even if it wasn’t a place I particularly wanted to go. I understood that if I wanted to find Him then I would have to go where He was and quit looking for Him where I wanted Him to be. Isn’t that usually the case? It is a mistake I seem to make more often than I care to admit, but eventually I figure it out.

     For me it was a place in my heart where some emotional debris had floated ashore after years of being gone or so I thought. It is amazing how a storm can bring something back to the shore of our hearts that we thought no longer existed.