Follow Me

I'm watching your every move. You breath in and breath out. Your eyes dart around - looking for the slightest movement, or something out of place. It's your job to protect me. Your senses are always on high alert. Your ears hear the smallest noise, and your nose is working on overdrive. You show me the best places to eat for nourishment. You tuck me in and give me peace when it's time to rest. If I watch you closely and learn how you keep me safe - it will help me for years to come. I want to learn to become just like you.

I can only imagine this internal monologue is from a 160" whitetail in the making. I imagine these thoughts in his head at a mere 6 months old. Go here; go there; I'll follow you mom.

My trail cameras have been out and working around the clock - and the small spotted fawns contained in the pixels are showing me another spiritual truth from the woods. A beautiful doe walked into the right side of the frame. She is browsing and her fawns trail her. As I click through the pictures I realize how great she is. I love seeing does with twins - but she is even greater - triplets. Acting as immature toddlers, they would wander past her. Yet as she turned back around to go the other direction, so would the fawns. In the days and weeks to come I'd see a picture or two without them in the frame - but inevitably - they would appear in picture 3 and 4 of the sequence. These fawns understand what it means to follow their mother.

In the Gospels, Jesus uses the words "Follow Me" 13 times. (Note: these words actually appear 22 times, but when you take out the times duplicated across the Gospels, you get 13) 13 times he tells someone to follow him. When my momma says something twice, you listen. When the Savior of the world says something 13 times. We should probably build our life around doing what he says. "Follow Me" is probably the simplest (in length) set of instructions ever given. To me these words mean: watch me, listen to me, talk to me, love how I love. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for our sins - but he was also the perfect example of how we are to live our lives here on earth. While small in length - these words are also the largest words in request. In Matthew 16 - verse 24 - he directs this statement to you and I.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24

Self-denial and a willingness to lay our lives down for his sake, for the sake of the kingdom. These are the things he commands and requires of us when we choose to follow Him. As I sit here typing this out - I realize it's way easier to type it out than to live out, but yet through his grace and mercy - we are able to attempt this great task of becoming one of his disciples. Each one of us will have our failures, but be encouraged in the fact that this self-denial should be a daily task. You can start new today. As Jesus keeps directing our lives, we keep following wherever he may lead.

Lastly, as I finish up writing a blog post titled "Follow Me", I can't help but chuckle at the irony in that title. Please do share. Please do subscribe. I'd love to hear from anyone that take the time to read this. However, what I really hope and pray is that your time reading this has been blessed, and everyone who reads this post chooses to answer the call when Jesus says "Follow Me".