Follow Him

Matthew 9:9
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth. "Follow me" Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed.

Do you think Matthew's life changed in the moment of obedience to the call of Jesus to follow?
Do you think maybe Matthew himself was changed?
This story has always intrigued me.
I'm sure that Matthew had no clue that morning when he got up that his life would be changed.
By sundown of that day, Matthew would no longer be the tax collector for his region. A man hated by neighbor and relative for the pact he had made with the Romans government. A pact that afforded Matthew a life of ease and wealth, built off the backs of his fellow countrymen.

Yet without those two simple words that Jesus spoke to Matthew, life would never be the same.
To follow Jesus is to enter into a life of change.
You  never bring your baggage of your old life with you into this new life.
With that first step to follow, everything changes. Not only around you, but in you as well.
Some of us don't do change very well.
I've found that the older I've gotten the more I dislike change. It upsets my routine. But then again, in the choice to follow Jesus, I don't have a routine. Oh there are certain things that I do daily, but the truth be known, I live to follow the direction the spiritual wind is blowing toward.

In other words, life has become like water.
It is fluid and always moving. Even at my age.
In a time when the world tells me that I should be slowing down and thinking of retirement, such is not a part of who I am. I want to see what is around the bend out there in my future. I want to peek over the hill and see what lies ahead. Oh sure, there are days when I want to sit down, take my shoes off and dip my feet into a cool stream. But the fire to follow still burns.

Life is about change.
Baby to toddler...
Toddler to young child...
Young child to teenager...
Teenager to young adult...
Young adult to old geezer...
We change.
Throw the call to follow Jesus into the mix and life truly becomes about change as the Holy Spirit works inside of us.
Change of heart..
Change of character...
Change of purpose...
We should never be content to sit down and think that God has done in us all that He desires to do.
We should be eager and ready to allow Him to change us, all the way down to the molecular level.

Jesus call to Matthew of "Follow Me"...reveals great truth I need to always remember.
With the call to "Follow"....I no longer get to call the shots. I no longer have a say in the direction my life is taking. My part is to simply follow.

When Jesus said to "Follow Me"...He was giving us a clear picture of the model of the life He wants for us. If you truly want to see how to live life, then get into the first four books of the New Testament....Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Read them and watch how Jesus lived life when He walked this earth. Read how he interacted with people. The deeds and miracles He did.
If we enter into a life of following Him, then we have been called to enter into the works that He did. Or, as John Wimber was so fond of saying, "We get to Do The Stuff!".

I just felt the Spirit leading me to write on this today.
Don't know who it's for (I do know it was for me).
Don't know what life may hold today, but whatever comes our way, we can change as we continue on this journey of following Jesus.

God on you...
mb