Hi Everyone, my name is Jacqueline Kroeker and I serve here at Lakeview. It’s actually been a little over a year since I started and I have loved the different opportunities offered here at the church. This last year, especially the Salsa dance lessons.
My husband Dwight and I, actually took the Salsa dance lessons. I’ve danced my whole life and my husband being the good Mennonite man that he is has rarely danced in his life. I know that’s a brushstroke statement. But anyways, I thought that taking the lessons would be a great opportunity for him to learn a dance that I love. In retrospect thought, I’m not sure it was such a great idea after all because we were mad at each other during and after every lesson. I remember being so frustrated with Dwight because I couldn’t understand why he could not lead me in the dance. And I became so completely unsympathetic to the difficulty he was having in leading me.
I clearly remember some of my comments to him, “honey, just stop counting and listen to the music” (and I would try to make it come across as if I was really trying to help but my comment I was so overtaken by impatience that he knew I was frustrated)…or I’d say “no, not like that lift my arm higher on the count of three not four” and then after all the criticism he received from me…I would say “would you at least have a little fun while you’re dancing with me!”. But he too made his comments. I remember him saying to me “you just don’t know how to follow, as a matter of fact you are a terrible follower!” I was so angry when he said this because I thought I was a pretty good follower and besides if I wasn’t a good follower it was only because he wasn’t a good leader.
Truth is I quickly came to recognize that Dwight was right, I really don’t know how to follow well, not only in dance but in many other areas of my life. Part of it is that a great majority of us have learned, in a diversity of ways that it really is not a great thing to be a follower, it’s better to be a leader. I’ve honestly never heard of anyone describing themselves as a follower without there being a sense of shame or embarrassment, have you?. It would seem that being a follower comes with it’s own taboo and rarely any of us want to be called followers or known as followers. Even in the church we make no room for followers, we urge everyone to be a leader, to strengthen, develop to embrace their leadership skills, there’s nothing wrong with that, but regrettably we have a load of churches trying to lead a people who have not learned how to follow.
Christ’s words for us in Matthew 16:24 are “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. I have found there is such a scarcity of great followers of Jesus, including and starting with myself. Why? Why do I say I follow Jesus when in reality most of my days I end up following my own urges and my own impulses and for the most part the difference between myself, who claims to be a follower of Christ and any other person who claims not to be a follower of Christ, on any given day can be so minimal.
I’ve learnt so much about following through Salsa dancing. I ‘ve learned that following is an art, a skill, a discipline that requires confidence and a deep trust in the one you are following. I’ve learned that following can be very difficult, but necessary. I’ve learned that in this life we all follow someone or something and there are no exceptions to that, and I’m increasingly learning that who we follow is the one single most important thing that we do in this life.
Some of us have made that choice to follow Jesus, but I’m wondering if we need to evaluate what that really means because…well I’m sure you know what it’s like to follow Jesus and somewhere in that stagnation set in, there is a sort of passion-less that invades our hearts. It’s like we’ve entered into a routine. Same old, same old. We’re stuck in a rut of some kind and we do a sort of mindless following, or worse yet, we simply decide to take a break from following – but it’s not intentional. As a matter of fact we don’t even notice we’ve taken a break. You know what I mean?
I think that we need to re-discover what Jesus meant when he said to follow him, because in some way I think that we have mistakenly assumed that believing is Jesus is an isolated step from our call to follow Jesus. In other words I can believe in Jesus and yet live my life very differently than how he intends me to live it. Author and missiologist Jan Hettinga says this, “We profess belief in God but do we allow that belief to make consistent discernible differences in our lives?”
It’s so tempting to put not thought as to how Jesus intended that we follow him.
Not too long ago I was making a left hand turn at an intersection. The light was red, so I just waited for the light to turn green. I have to admit though, when I get behind the wheel it’s like I change personalities, seriously. And you know what….I know I’m not the only one. So here I am impatiently waiting for the light to turn green. There was no place that I needed to get to in an urgency, but I was in a hurry, for no reason at well. And I was glaring at the light, as if that would make it change to green. Eventually the light turned green but the moment it did, at that very second the driver behind me honks his horn. And all of a sudden from nowhere I turned into Dr. Hyde. I looked at my rear view mirror and there he is waving at me in a rage to go. The light just turned green, give me a chance will you? And I’m thinking to myself “what are you in a hurry or what? I’ll go when I feel like going? But he kept honking his horn. So I put my foot on the gas and I made the slowest most pathetic possible turn ever. I mean, I was even embarrassed of how slow I was going but there was a deep satisfaction in me. And the more he honked the slower I went. He had no choice but to go at my pace.
Immediately however, I heard this small voice saying, “why did you do that?” but then just as quickly I dismissed the thought with “ah, he deserved it!” And I deliberately made a choice to ignore the gentle but firm tap on the shoulder, that I knew was coming from God. And I continued on with my day. Now for some this might not be a big deal at all, but for me it was because I know that God was trying to get my attention on a matter that he knew needed to be addressed. But I didn’t want to hear it and I know when I stop listening to the promptings of God I increasingly begin to put no thought to how he intends for me to follow him and I also know that when that happens…I become ineffective and unproductive for what I have been called to be and do.
I’m continually being challenged to face the truth…that following Jesus is about progressive and radical change. And it starts with small steps, small choices and decisions.
Jesus said, “Follow Me”. This is his invitation for those who yet do not know him and it is his command for those of us who do.
If we choose to follow Christ there are definite implications. But I believe God calls us to follow him because it is possible. Because we can do it.
There is a beautiful passage in Scripture that assures us that following Jesus is possible.
It’s found in II Peter 1:3-10 and it says this…His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness (godliness means being made more into the character of Jesus) through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them (through this promise that we have been given everything we need for life and godliness) you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desire.
For this very reason (to be strong enough to say “no” to evil desires that are all around us and follow Jesus as he would like us to that we may be made more into his character), make every effort (listen to that,..that’s right it’s work, effort requires work, it’s sacrifice, its self-denial, it’s God’s will not mine and it is my responsibility, I am the one that makes the effort. It is an intentional thought to how we are to follow Jesus) make every effort to add to your faith goodness, make every effort to add to goodness, knowledge, make every effort to add to knowledge, self-control make every effort to add to self-control, perseverance, make every effort to add to perseverance, godliness make every effort to add to godliness, brotherly love. What happens when we do this? For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure (it’s a continual thing, it’s on-going), they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge (and I would say your following) of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Taking up our cross and following Jesus is possible! Why? Because we have the precious and secure promise that God’s divine power has given us everything we need for this life and for godliness. How then do we follow Jesus? We take small steps and make every effort to add to faith goodness to goodness knowledge etc. And when we do this on an on-going basis we will be effective and productive for what he has called us to be and do. Small steps, small choices.
You know…Now a days, it’s not a big deal for me to go to Walmart and park my car 3 or 4 minutes walk from the front door. But in the winter, when it’s 40 below and the arctic wind is gushing so hard and it feels like my forehead is going to explode, there ain’t no way I’m gonna give up that second parking stall to anyone. Jacqueline…put thought to how you are to follow.
I would like to encourage you to re-read Matthew 16:24 and II Peter, Take some time with God. Then I’d like to challenge you to take this week, start tomorrow and make an intentional effort to evaluate your following through the day. This is not about beating yourself up. No. It’s about being truthful with yourself and taking a deeper look at how you are following Jesus and then listening to what he might be challenging you to…remember it starts with the little choices of your day, and where we are convicted will be different for each person.
Lastly I’d like to give you an opportunity to share your discoveries and stories on the Indialogue blog or if you’re into Facebook join the Lakeview group and share your stories there…I’ll create a discussion about this topic. It’s so important to hear each other and be encouraged as we read and hear each other’s stories.
Wouldn’t it be awesome to corporately build each other up as we work together at taking up our crosses and following Jesus.
Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me. ”What will you do? | 
