As I look forward to celebrating Easter one more time, I can’t help but think about the following Sunday. For some strange reason that’s where a pastor’s mind goes automatically. And we all know what we all know: whereas Easter Sunday morning it looks like all traffic on I-205 has been diverted to our sanctuary, the following Sunday it’s more like a bomb went off. Well, maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole. Still, you understand what I mean. While on Easter the CEO’s (Christmas and Easter Only) show up, they apparently need to rest up until Christmas. What they fail to understand is all that they are missing.
A life in Jesus is exactly that: a life in Jesus. It isn’t a weekend in Jesus, or a Sunday here and there with Jesus. It’s a life that has been totally immersed in Him. Apart from that, a person never really experiences all God has for him. Why does that seem to be so hard to grasp?
The older I get, the less complex I understand a life in Christ to be. Really it’s all about one thing and one thing only: following Jesus. He stated that at the very beginning to the men He called to walk with Him through His earthly ministry. To each one He said that simple phrase “follow Me.” When you boil it down, that’s all they ever needed to do, follow Him. Follow Him in the good times and the bad. Follow Him when it was fun and when it was challenging. Follow Him when they “got it” and when they didn’t understand. Follow Him when they were uptight and when they were relaxed. Just follow and keep on following Him. If you stop and think about it, the times when they had the most difficulty were whenever they stopped doing that, when they instead leaned into their own understanding and not into His, followed their own noses instead of continuing to go after Him.
I don’t want merely to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on one day, nor do I desire that for anybody who loves Jesus. More than anything else what I want to do is that one simple thing – follow Jesus. Who wants to join me?