Tough Challenges

Sometimes, we are faced with options that could change our lives forever. This isn't necessarily a religious path. It could be a new job, moving to a new home or country, deciding to get married etc. Sometimes the changes that occur from these choices that we make will be so tiny, so minute, that it will take a while for us to realise they've happened. But once in a while the changes are so obvious it's as if we've shed our skin and become a completely different person.

This is what happened with the twelve men who were chosen to follow Jesus as apostles. There were many disciples, but these twelve were special - God had something incredible lying in store for them. They were to become Jesus' closest friends, his confidants. They would play a significant part in both his death and the spreading of his message to the world. But it wouldn't be without cost. The Bible tells us on many an occasion that, when Jesus told them to follow him, they simply stood up and did it. No goodbyes, no worries about their homes or jobs or families. They got up and followed Jesus without any thought.

You can take this as you like. Were they being irresponsible? Were they brainwashed? I don't believe they were. I believe that Jesus was such a completely different person that they instantly knew in their hearts who he was. It would take a while for their heads to get round it - about three years in fact - but their hearts knew it from the moment they lay eyes on him.

The passage of the week comes from a section entitled "The Would-be Followers of Jesus", Luke 9: 57 -62, which can also be found in Matthew 8: 19-22, (though interestingly the week's passage isn't in the latter). A couple of people claim that they want to follow Jesus, but first one must say goodbye to his family and another needs to bury his recently deceased father. It's a seemingly reasonable request, surely? Strangely not to Jesus. "Let the dead bury their own dead," he tells the bereaved man, and gives our passage to the family man.

There is a danger that people may think Jesus was being cold, uncaring here. But what he's actually doing is setting us a huge challenge. If something or someone comes into our lives that has the potential to make us completely new, to make us better people than we already are, what would be the point of taking the opportunity to change if we just go back to our old lives? We have to take that change wherever we go immediately. In the case here its the work of God, who should always come first before family, friends, career, etc.

It's not an easy challenge, though to be honest it wouldn't be much of a challenge if it were easy. But if we keep the desire to change first and foremost in our minds, it will eventually filter through into our lives until we wake up one morning and look at ourselves in the mirror and find that we have changed - completely and for the better.

Laters.