Tuesday, December 13th, 2022
I met with Tyler yesterday at the county jail where I’m a chaplain. He’s struggling with having lost his daughter to foster care when he got busted several months ago. We were studying the story of the rich ruler whom Jesus asked to sell everything he had and come follow Him, when he asked me a question I hadn’t anticipated. “Pat, if Jesus asked you to give up everything you have to go where He asked you to go, what would you say to Him?”
I thought about my wife, my two sons and their wives, and my three grandchildren and the teacher’s retirement checks my wife and I get and the Social Security checks we get every month. I thought about the comfortable house I live in and my friends and my publishing business and all the other things I’d be losing. I told Tyler I’d ask Jesus for time to think it over, since it was such a momentous decision to make.
Then I started processing it all aloud, so Tyler was able to see the process I’d use to answer Jesus’ question. First of all, I’d not be leaving my children and grandchildren in the lurch. My wife, their mother and Nana, is the main go-to contact in our family; she’d be sufficient for them. As to all the rest of it, I went through it piece by piece and said to Tyler, “If I can trust Jesus with the then, when I die, then surely I can trust Him with the now. If he sends me far away, He’ll take care of my family and friends and business and all the pieces of my life.”
I thought a bit of where He might send me. Some places would be OK and some I’d prefer not to go to. But If I’ve given my life to Him, then wherever He takes me to is where He wants me to be. If I am His servant, as I claim I am, I will follow Him to the ends of the earth. He died on the cross to reconcile me to God; He gave me a free pass to heaven. How could I refuse Him anything. All these things that I thought I shared with Tyler. Then I said, “My answer would be ‘Yes, I’m willing to follow you anyplace You want me to go, whether pleasant or unpleasant. I’m willing to give up everything I have to follow You.'”
It might be a good exercise for you to ask yourself the same question. Would you be willing to give up everything you have to go where Jesus wanted you to go? With no stipulations or requests. With no expectations other than doing what He wants you to do.