I am a pastor at 
I have a very good friend who has had quite a roller coaster of a journey the past few years, well actually his life has been one i guess. he’s been on a really hard journey especially these few years just dealing with a lot of…well…crap. Some it is fault, other things he had no control over. in this process, he has really gone through, and is still going through a process of searching out what following Christ really looks like. I think he would say that he’s not really understood it well (again, some his fault and some of this comes from just a distorted view of God, faith, etc that he was taught, modeled and learned…)
The other day he asked me the following question:
“Will you please let me know what are the reasons that you follow God and what are some of the things that you find hard about following God…sorta like what is good and bad about following God.”
I have spent a week now thinking through this and want to give an honest, thoughtful answer. But, in the process, i was wondering how some of you might answer the question. if you want to participate, you can either post in the comments or make a post on your blog and link to it from the comments…it would be really neat to hear what some of you think about this question…
wezlo said...
1We were looking at our upcoming stories for CrossPoint and we came to the Passage of Peter on the rooftop in Acts where God tells him to kill and eat all sorts of “unclean” animals. Peter, I guess, thinks it’s a trick question, but God says, “Don’t call unclean what I’ve made clean.” He was pondering the vision when the people from the Roman Cornelius knocked on the door.
We thought about it for a minute and said, “When was the last time anyone ever told you that praying could actually make your life MORE difficult?”
06/30/05 5:13 PM | Comment Link
wezlo said...
2sorry, didn’t finish – It floors me when I hear Christians talk, like Jesus is some kind of anti-depressent who will take all of our pain away. It’s a load of crap, following Jesus means being torn apart and reformed into Christ’s image, it’s painful, confusing, and it hurts; but I can’t go anywhere else but to his side becuase there is patience, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and love (to name a few); a vision of something that should be better, and can be…
And now I’ll have to use that first post to blog – it’s too good to let alone…I must chew on it some more…
06/30/05 5:18 PM | Comment Link
carolh said...
3I asked your grandfather that this morning.
He said he didn’t figure there IS much “easy” about following Jesus. He did say that the important thing is that we must decide to follow him, no matter what, regardless of how it feels…and as we follow, we find more what it’s all about.
just last week Pastor Marty was talking about “what it means to follow Jesus.” He said our first and primary “calling” is the command to “follow me.” He also said that no matter how far you rise in “leadership”, youre first call is one of “following Jesus.”
Then at the close he said:
God doesn’t promise to take us to safe places, but He does take us where He needs to take us so that we become the people we were meant to be.”
i have also noted that the older i get (57) there are some things that are easier for me to deal with…and it’s because i have accumulated a long history of what happens when i follow Jesus…He has proved himself faithful and in that sense some things are “easier.” I also know that “this” is not all there is.
mostly, it’s hard!
07/3/05 10:16 AM | Comment Link
Todd said...
4thanks for the thougths. perhaps another way to answer the question:
what is compelling about following jesus?
07/5/05 4:08 PM | Comment Link