Holy Spirit of God, help me faithfully follow Jesus…

                                                                  
1 Samuel 3:1-20 & Mark 1:14-20

In this age of social media, an even wider idea of ‘following’ emerges. If Jesus were to have a Facebook page, I wonder how many committed ‘followers’ he would have – watching his every post, responding to his photos with emojies, commiserating with his sorrows and giving a thumbs up to his joys.  What Jesus asked of Samuel as a child, and of Simon, Andrew, James and John a working fisherman  - and asks of us to day – is  that we ‘follow’ him in the full sense of the word, informed by this digital age as well as by the ancient meaning of the original Greek word, akoloutheō [i]  or the old English word, folgian, that gives us our present word, ‘follow’. To follow Jesus does not require that that I have status,  that I am successful, that I myself have a huge following or even that I know how to heal the sick, raise the dead, and turn water into wine.  What is required is that I turn my attention to Christ Jesus and, like the child Samuel or the rough fishermen of Galilee, follow Jesus’ every post, and faithfully say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”.  Do I expect Jesus to follow me, or will I follow Jesus? As I follow Jesus, will I actively listen to him to learn from himand to find out what he is up to, and then participate with him in his life in the world today?  Holy Spirit of God, help me faithfully follow Jesus in the full sense of the word.
  
Then I said, “Here I am. In the scroll of the book it is written of me.  I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”  (Psalm 40: 7,8)
 
Our hearts were made for you O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you.
St. Augustine of Hippo 
 
 


[i]  “While akoloutheō is almost always translated as “follow” in English translations, it has a broader range of meanings. It can also mean “accompany” and “assist”. …when Jesus was calling people to follow him he wasn’t just saying “tag along”. Jesus didn’t want people to just listen and believe in him from a distance. He was inviting people to come close, to join him, and even help him with his mission. He wanted people to be vitally engaged with him in both learning and doing the work of the gospel. “ 
Marg Mowczko on the following page:
https://margmowczko.com/a-look-at-the-word-follow-akoloutheo/
 
 
 
Soli ad gloriam
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