"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
Every time I read this statement by Jesus I have to stop and wonder whether he's talking directly to me. There are times I feel I've lost the sound of the Master's footsteps, I've missed the boat because of my obsession with comfort and convenience, or I've just gotten so tired and worn out that I sat down too long. Where exactly is Jesus going, what kind of people will he associate with and what kind of work is He doing? Perhaps I already know the answers, I just don't like where they lead. Henry Blackaby in his best seller "Experiencing God" says that immediately after the will of God is made knowing to us we face "a crisis of belief". A crisis of belief is a moment of doubt or indecision as to whether we will follow and do what God is calling us to do or simply fall back.
When I stop to consider my own faith journey, I find myself wondering less about where Jesus is and more about where I am. When Jesus was at work in the world 2,000 years ago, very few people had any doubt in their minds that something from God was happening, they just weren't sure what. As a matter of fact, whatever Jesus did so upset the people who saw it that many wanted to kill him in order to get him to stop. You may not like it what He did, but you couldn't deny it was unlike anything you'd seen before. Wherever he went, Jesus drew a crowd because something was happening. In these days of overwhelming demands and unrealistic expectations, it's easy to get lost, to lose sight of where Jesus is going and even harder to follow and serve.
At the beginning of February I will be making a personal journey to follow Jesus again to a place I believe He is at work, an orphanage outside of Port-a-Prince Haiti. Why there? Well I know that when Jesus was in Israel He went to where the poor and the broken people gathered and He healed them, He went where there was no hope and taught them about the love of God, and He went where there were children and told them the Kingdom of God was theirs.
So during the first week of February I will be travelling to a far country that is broken beyond my imagination in order to love on some children that will probably never know a mother's hug or the confidence of have a family behind you, to teach local pastors about the meaning of the Sacraments as God's Means of Grace, and to help build a place of hope and security for children year to come. But if you really want to know why I'm going, I'm going to follow Jesus.