Who's Responsible
When I was skipping with Jesus down that road, I just had to follow Him. I didn’t have the weight of knowing or even caring where we were going or what we would need to do when we got there, or what we needed to bring with us. And it’s not that God wants us to go through life without taking responsibility for things or being prepared for something (though I’m reminded of when Jesus sent out His disciples and told them to take nothing with them – no clothes, no money, no food –
Mark 6:7-13). What God wants is for us to listen to Him.
Jesus said, “I only do what I see my Father doing” (
John 5:19, paraphrased). Jesus spent so much time with the Father and knew His heart so well, that He did
nothing that He didn’t see His Father doing, and He said
nothing that He didn’t hear His Father saying. The very
giver of freedom was the perfect example of a follower, and as He follows, He invites us to come along.
We don’t experience freedom by continually adding the responsibility of our own decisions to live life of our own accord. We experience it by complete abandon to our Leader. We experience it when we let God be responsible for our lives and those around us.
It’s such a strange concept, at least to me, that freedom may come in giving up responsibility instead of taking on more. But isn’t that what we’re all searching for in the first place? We spend most of our lives trying to make a way for ourselves, so that in the last years, we can avoid responsibility and finally enjoy life (we call it ‘retirement’). And even those who rebel against those ideals, rebel against the same concept – doing their best to avoid responsibility, because with responsibility comes consequences and stresses, and even the question of our identities that none of us really want to face.
So the Lord says, “Follow me… Leave your worries and responsibilities behind. Trust me. Go where I go, do what I do, and see if you don’t experience the freedom and utter relief of not following your own way. Come. Let me show you the way to true life – to ‘life abundantly.’ Follow me.”
Continue to You Gotta Have Faith ->