When Jesus looked a man in the eye and said, "Follow me," He was literally inviting the would be disciple to begin a physical journey. Jesus was a walker. He walked constantly from one place to the next place. To follow Jesus meant putting on walking shoes. It is different today. To follow Jesus is not going to require us to get on the road which will take us from one place to another, but it will require us to get on the road which takes us from where we are to where we are going. It requires no shoes, only faith.
So, while He still calls folks to a journey, it is a different kind of journey. It is a journey with no destination at the end of the road. It can be said with more truth than we might realize that the journey only ends as we take the final step from this life to the one He has prepared for us. In the meantime life is not about the end of the road, but it is instead about what and who we encounter on the road. When we first heard the invitation to go with Jesus, we started out under the illusion that we knew where the road would take us.
One of the things we learn if we stay on the road long enough is the reality of that illusion. The road with Jesus is unpredictable. No routine is so important that it cannot be laid aside for another. When change begins to overtake us, we are most likely hesitant to move forward in a new and different way. But, such is the way of Christ. Who among those disciples of long ago would have predicted in the beginning that the road was going to take Jesus to the cross and them to a death not caused by disease or aging, but by faithfulness. It is no easy road. It never has been. But, it is the road which takes us Home to the Father and there is none like it. Walk on.
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