There are a few people who are “followers” of my blog which means that you get advice that I’ve made a new post and if you’ve got time you will read it.
Thanks for your support. I appreciate that people read what I have to say, and that they can benefit from my ramblings.
But I’ve been thinking about the Facebook type of following and the sort of following that Jesus talks about.
Yesterday in church I spoke about an incident that was recorded in Luke’s Gospel about a time when Jesus was walking along the road surrounded by a big group of people.
There were those people who we refer to as the “disciples” but there were others who joined Jesus and took part in a conversation about what it meant to be a “follower” of Jesus.
One man promised to be a follower of Jesus, but Jesus had to remind him that he didn’t have a home of his own so following him would cause him to risk the usual comforts of life.
Jesus invited a second person to follow him, and he agreed to the idea, but put it off until some of his plans were sorted out. He made the comment that he needed to bury his father first. I suspect that his father wasn’t even dead yet and following Jesus was something that would happen at a later, and more convenient, date.
A third person was really keen to follow Jesus but needed to go home and say goodbye to the family first. You still get the idea that it was a delaying tactic.
It seems there was a clear distinction between the disciples, that group of men who had given up their fishing, tax collecting, and other businesses, to follow Jesus, and some of the other people who were walking along the road with Jesus at that time, talking about the issue of following.
It seems that we can be fellow travellers with Jesus, but not followers in the way in which Jesus was inviting people to follow. That we can be like “blog followers” who can pick and choose what that following will look like.
When Jesus invited people to follow him, he didn’t just ask them to tick a box and read his blogs when we had time. He was asking for a level of commitment to him that involved putting him first in every aspect of our life.
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I’ve added a couple of posts during the week that you may have missed. The Science of Happiness is a great video about the power of gratitude. And for a bit of light relief, look at The View from an Aeroplane Lavatory and follow the link to see some more great pics.
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