Follow me

John 21: 15 - 19

..when you were younger you went where you wanted

...when you are old ..someone else will lead you..

Follow me!

What strange words Peter had to hear, after being given a verbal 'test' about his love for Jesus. The over confident disciple was by that time a changed man. No more the bravado of the past. He had fallen hard and been loved back to fellowship with his Lord. But now this not too comfortable statement was presented to him. If he knew anything, he would know that Jesus did not talk flippantly. There would be truth in the words, truth that he would at some stage learn to live as faithfully as he could, into an unknown and uncomfortable future.

I believe we experience this to some extent even in natural ageing process. In our younger days, full of confidence in ourselves, we set out to conquer the world. In time, if we are wise, we grow more realistic about our lives and learn that things do not always happen as we would wish, and that we do not have the ability to make them go our way. Does this happen along the spiritual journey? In a way it does. We would love to hear comforting personal prophecies all the time. But the Lord does not give that to one of his closest disciples. Yet if we perceive rightly, we may begin to see that even such a statement is not 'foreboding' and 'gloomy'. Jesus is being honest and open, sharing with his friend his knowledge of the future. And through it all, he reminds Peter, and us, that at the root of it all is the call "Follow me". To the world the Cross was total folly and yet for those who believe, it is the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1: 24). Even if things are not going our way, and even when they seem to go terribly wrong, the indicator that all will be well is how closely we take up Jesus' invitation, "Follow me".

At a group today, in finishing "Abba's Child", we were struck by a statement "Our love is a need; God's love is a gift". How to learn to love as God loves, in fact, how to first of all receive God's gift of unconditional love into the core of our own being......that is the challenge of the spiritual journey.