Yesterday while saying goodbye to a dear friend, who is quite older than me.
He asked me my age.
I answered him and asked him the reason for his question, to which he replied that he was trying to remember where he was when he was my age.
Following this, I asked him for some advice, considering my stage of life, and he said, “Just follow Jesus.”
I asked him if he had anything else to advise me, and he said “no, just that”.
Today, the depth of his simple words resonates in my head.
Interestingly, the only advice someone older, full of wisdom, finds it valuable to give you is, “follow Jesus.”
At the time, I was expecting something more.
I expected him to give me a step-by-step plan.
A secret guide.
Perhaps something more complex and elaborate.
But no, I found his words the flattest, simplest, and yet, at the time, disconcerting.
As I think about them, with a whole life ahead of me, even with so many things pending to be more clear in that life, with several uncertainties, I would like to have everything under control.
I would like to have everything clearly demarcated and resolved.
And yet, in contrast, his answer: “just follow Jesus.”
A bible text to bring more divine light in the midst of this catharsis would be:
Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.
My Father will honor the one who serves me.
| John 12:26
In the school of Jesus, it is essential to learn that hard lesson that we so easily forget.
The way to serve God passes through the paths that Jesus opens in front of us.
To serve Jesus is to follow him where he guides us, the way he guides us.
Being faithful in the present and resting on Him the burdens of an unknown future.
And here I am, wanting to serve him, trying to learn to give up control, to keep trusting that he knows where he’s leading me.
I leave you with these other lines:
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
| Hebrews 13:20-21
What do you think? Would you like to learn to follow Jesus? What is your experience? Share in the comments.
A hug, God bless you.
