Roger Moore
The Gathering Place
Snow falling from the sky recently blanketed the area with such amazing beauty. The mountains in the foreground from my front porch view were a landscape of evergreens and glistening white.
It piled up rather quickly and slowed things to a crawl and I found it refreshing to have a short period of not being able to get out. But that soon ended with the necessity of a normal day-to-day routine. Back to the real world.
Venturing out in the snow we often find ourselves following the tracks previously made by those who have gone before us. It’s simply much easier to do than to make our own and if they have been there long enough to harden from the cold they have a tendency to pull us into them with little effort.
So it can be in life. We often find ourselves, without thinking, following the tracks of another. We follow “in the footsteps” of our parents, our grandparents, our friends, our influencers, and numerous others who we tend to follow never questioning where it may lead. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, however we just keep following the tracks laid out before us because it’s in our nature to do so. We all have the tendency to look for the easiest and least path of resistance.
In the book of John, Chapter 21, we read of a conversation between Jesus and Peter. Peter, you see, had denied Jesus as Jesus had told him he would. So we see them together with other disciples after Jesus appears to them on the shore while they are fishing. Now seated at a meal, Jesus begins to question Peter.
“Simon Peter, do you love me more than these?” This He does three times to the point that Peter is agitated and responds the last time saying, “Lord, you know all things and know that I do.” Jesus then begins to share with him how it will be when he is old and how he will glorify Him in the end. But then Jesus tells Peter, “follow me.”
Peter begins to question Jesus about the others following Him. You see, Jesus had given instruction to Peter to “feed my sheep” and now Peter was asking what the he wanted the others to do. Jesus response to Peter was “you follow me.”
The next time we see Peter in the bible is the book of Acts and Peter is following in the footsteps of Jesus and people are being physically healed and set free from all kinds of oppression in their lives. That’s what Jesus was doing before He left so it was only natural that Peter do as Jesus had asked Him to do, follow Him.
Sometimes we find ourselves following the wrong leaders. However I have found that we are all uniquely individual and if not careful we will follow the tracks made by someone else and find ourselves frustrated with this life.
Let me encourage you, individually, to build a personal relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit so that it is He who directs your footsteps in the tracks of life just like Peter had allowed Him to do. It’s truly a great adventure when you wholeheartedly follow Jesus! Try it, you won’t be disappointed.
