Forty-two years ago I started to follow Jesus. I was seventeen years old and had spent this equivalent weekend (at the start of the October half-term) with a friend, visiting her sister who had just started studying at Girton College, Cambridge. I had gone along to a service at the chapel there and also attended a church service in Cambridge where the minister faithfully taught from 1 Corinthians 7 about Christian marriage. I began to see that God was alive all over the world and that faith mattered even to young people (rather than being the prerogative of the old, who needed an insurance policy against death, as I used to think.) The students I met were young, intelligent, caring people whose faith gave them grounding and purpose.
I returned home, wrestling all that week until the Thursday with God, understanding that He wanted me to commit my life to Him but fearing the consequences of surrender. I had no peace until I finally accepted His call to follow Him. I surrendered and received His free gift of eternal life, recognising my sinfulness and inability to save myself.
Jesus calls people to follow Him. The Bible is full of these stories: His call to Peter, Andrew, James and John, to Matthew, to Saul. Many people have responded positively to that call; some, like the rich young ruler, decided the cost was too high. Jesus gives us a choice.
Forty-two years later, I’m so glad I am still following Jesus. Thire is no better way to live. Jesus is an ever-present companion, a friend, someone who loves us unconditionally and gives us a fresh start, even when we mess up. He is also that fierce lion, shaping our lives through affliction and the sufferings of life. He does not condone our failings, but cleanses us and sets us on our feet again.
The Bible gives us the identity of ‘followers’, which reminds us that God leads and we follow. He is the Master. We are not the boss. To be a follower is not to read the words of Jesus and click a ‘like’ button on Facebook;. To be a follower means putting His words into practice on a daily basis. It means immersing ourselves in the death of Christ so we too can share in His resurrection. To follow Jesus means we acknowledge that He is at the centre of life and we are not.
C. S. Lewis described himself as ‘the most reluctant convert’, fearing the choice to follow Jesus would lead to the end of all the good and pleasurable things in life. Instead, he found himself ‘surprised by joy’, for God is good and the author of all joy. God is good (Ps 119:68), and a lifetime of following Him underlines that fact, but I know also the tightrope we walk at times in life includes much that is not good. Faith is how we reconcile the visible and invisble aspects of life.
I don’t regret following Jesus, for He alone has the words of eternal life. (John 6:69) I want to press on and continue to follow Him. I don’t know where He will lead me, but I know I can trust Him to do all things well. (Mark 7:37)
Will you follow Jesus too?
