I have a brass cross given to me by my pastor on my confirmation with the bold words “Follow me” on a banner across it. Over the years it’s held a special place in my heart and my home. It hangs in my kitchen, the center of my home. Today, again, I’m drawn into those two words as I reflect on Paul Easterday’s Sunday sermon. Based on Psalm 127:1, the message was about how all the best plans in the world are in vain unless God has made them.
For real! All those days when my plans didn’t work out, I can look back and reason that it wasn’t in alignment with God’s plan for my day. So my mile long list that stays a mile long? Can I assume that God doesn’t want me to bathe my dog because it’s been lost in the middle of that list for at least a week now? She’s not (too) stinky and she’s not shedding badly. I can adapt!
After all, my stay-at home-mom turned work-at-home-mom lifestyle allows for lots of flexibility. I can roll with it. So “Follow me” watches over me as I go through my kitchen, another pass through with a basket of laundry, then answering a call for help from one of my kids. “Follow me.” Back to my computer to get some work done. “Follow me.” Time to make another meal. “Follow me.”
My day that started with a plan isn’t on track. I find myself in a rut every now and then, realizing that my list-driven life isn’t making it through a list. Sometimes I think it’s that I’ve made a bad list. Sometimes I think it’s because my husband works too much and isn’t as helping as I had hoped when I penned that list. Sometimes I bemoan my kids’ bickering (and all-out battling) as the cause of my derailment. Other times I rationalize it’s because I’m being too much like my mom with my reliance on list-crossing-off satisfaction. And this week, in addition, it’s because it’s the end of summer vacation.
My day that started with a plan isn’t on track.
I think Paul must have taken a chapter from my life when writing his sermon. I mean, he really spoke directly, freakishly, right into my life. He could have prefaced several statements with, “Isn’t that right, Becky?” But he didn’t… I’m not alone in this. Yes, others have similar experiences! Okay, so his sermon was a remedy for what ails me?
My remedy is in those 2 words I see every day on that cross. “Follow me” is my remedy. Jesus says, “Follow me,” every day to me. But I forget, or ignore, that call all too often. Anyone else remember the obnoxious wall hanging fish, Big Mouth Billy Bass, that would flop around and sing at anyone who walks by “Don’t Worry, be Happy,” or “Take me to the River”? Maybe I need a cross with a motion sensor that will speak to me each time I pass, “Follow me.”
“Follow me” is my remedy.
It makes me sad to acknowledge that sometimes the loudest, flashiest things get my attention and quiet; still Jesus waits for me to get over it. How can I use the impact of Sunday’s sermon to help me get back into the waiting arms of Jesus and all his plans for me?
To start with, I made it a priority to not allow too much time to pass this morning without spending a few minutes of time in prayer and devotion. I know that when I am attentive to Him, He guides me and I don’t seek the comfort of list writing and crossing off. Then returning to Him briefly through this day is helping me not forget that at any given moment, He might have something important coming my way. And perhaps most importantly, I remember that it is for all my weaknesses that I return to Living Water each Sunday where He fills me up, surrounds me with help and hope, and equips me to try again.
To hear the sermons from this week from all three sites, click here.
