The Road, Part 1

The Christian faith is a road. Many of us are already on this road. Some have not yet chosen it. To those who have not chosen, Christ Jesus is always ready for you to begin your journey. For those who have chosen, He gently encourages us to keep walking.

I call it a road because Jesus did not ask us just to call ourselves Christians, or even to just have a conversion experience. He said to “Take up your cross and follow me”. To follow someone, we must be going somewhere. To go somewhere, we get on the road.

Recently, I realized that I have been standing still on the road. It does not matter for how long. What matters is that I hear Jesus asking me to take another step with Him now. And what I have come to realize is that the road Jesus is asking me to walk down is the same road that He once took – the Way of the Cross.

Jesus willingly walked this road to his death, and he bids me to do the same.

Jesus could’ve chosen to leave that road. He could’ve chosen any other road in the universe – even the ones paved with gold in His true home. But He kept walking, step after painful step, all the way to the end of the road where His life was given up for me.

I have chosen different roads many times. In fact, it’s not much credit to me that I have chosen to walk with Jesus now, because I only made this choice after realizing that all the other roads either led someplace bad or nowhere at all. Through Jesus, I learned that His road is the only one that leads to true fulfillment. Perhaps this recognition sums up the conversion experience -- when we realize the only road worth travelling in life is the one with Jesus.

What does it mean to follow Jesus, and why do I feel I have been standing still lately?

Maybe it means that we are having a real relationship with Him. One where our prayer life, if we take the time to pray, is more than just petitions and complaints. My relationship with my fiancé would not flourish if I only came to her, asking for stuff or complaining about stuff. Of course, she wants to hear the things I want and the things that are on my heart, but she also wants to be adored. She wants to be praised and told that I need her in my life. I need to say these things to her, also, so I am reminded of them.

Maybe my relationship with Jesus is not so different, yet I have only been complaining and begging – not the stuff of a healthy relationship. And I have felt very empty at times. I have had very little in my cup to pour out to other people. I think that a true walk with Jesus is a walk of overflowing abundance in my soul.

I would like to emphasize in my soul. Because sometimes people think of following Jesus as a road to other kinds of abundance. Financial abundance. “Everyone loves me” abundance. “My job is great” abundance. I don’t know about you, but I do not always receive this kind of abundance when I am following Jesus. But my soul is abundant. I have peace, love, grace, joy, and rest.

(continued on Thursday)

With Love,
a young shepherd.