Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
“Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”
—Matthew 4.19
To follow Jesus is not just to profess belief in him. It is to accompany him deep into the heart of life. It is to enter fully into the life of God. We leave behind all that keeps us from beholding the What Is; all that entangles us in our attachments and fears; all that holds us back from pure, radical love. We leave behind all that prevents us from being fully present and available to the Spirit. We enter into the miracle of love in this world.
To follow Jesus is to climb inside of him as he moves through this world, loving its glory into freedom, loving its wholeness till it makes the world whole. We join his amazing dance of grace and beauty sadness and joy, and stay with the dance even as it snakes and jives through the slums and the refugee camps, corporate offices and army barracks, the insane asylums and funeral parlors, showering love on people who can’t believe it, and won’t. We stay with him as he turns water into wine and hugs lepers and makes tyrants nervous and feeds hungry souls and bodies. We learn to see glory in the ordinary and trust blessing when it’s bleak. We live inside of God, who is love, and watch God happen in every little thing. To follow Jesus is to burrow into the sun.
Jesus comes on like a flood of love and hope and light and blessing, inundating every square inch of the place and sweeping a lot of things away; and we strap on our life jackets and hang on for dear life and ride the waves. To follow Jesus means mostly to stay with him, especially when it gets hard: to keep our arms around him while he’s weeping for his people, when he’s accused, while they’re whipping him, while he’s dying. And to stay with him still, in the darkness. And—dang if this isn’t the weirdest thing—stay with him right up into the light in his resurrection. To follow Jesus is to not let go of life, even in death. Just hang onto him.
To follow Jesus is to fall in love. Just let go and fall. Follow. Breathe deep. That’s his voice, calling. Go.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
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Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net