I May Forget To Follow, But He Never Does

​When I was in my mid-twenties, I went to work part-time for a Mennonite carpenter. I was a drunk and a gambler looking to make a little extra money to gamble more and stay more drunk.

Not long into this experience, at lunch one day, the carpenter started talking to me about Jesus. Not in a preachy way. Not in an invasive way. It was more like he was introducing me to his family - like he was opening his wallet and showing me pictures with infectious love and admiration.

In that moment, I was infected. Jesus appeared in my life. Like family. Family I'd had my whole life but was meeting them for the first time at a family reunion.

Sometimes people will ask me to prove Jesus. Show the evidence. And I turn around and point to him, following right behind me.

Almost always they don't see him. Which I get. No judgement here. Because until that lunch with the carpenter, I'd never seen him standing behind me either.

But he was there.

I have followed Jesus since that day. Only - if I am truthful - some days I forget that I am following him. Some days it looks like I am following me more than him. Thankfully, though, Jesus never lets that stand in the way of choosing to follow me.

There are days when life begins to feel very challenging. Hopeless. And out of the blue I will hear it: "We've got this." I hear those words and look up and see him, the Jesus I met at that lunch with the carpenter.

And some days life can be going quite well. Goodness coming my way in ways I'd never imagined. And out of the blue I will hear it: "We did it." I hear those words and look up and see him, the Jesus I met at that lunch with the carpenter.

It is true that I follow Jesus.

But the truth is, there are more days when Jesus reminds me that he is still following me than I assure him that I'm still here following him.

I am working on that. Hard.

But I am working on it with the peace of knowing that for over twenty years of my life, I completely overlooked the Jesus standing right behind me. Twenty years...and he never budged. Not one inch away from me.

Jesus waits for me to follow him with all the following I have in me.

He waits - right behind me.