As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Mark 1:16-20

Mark has given us something really interesting to sink our teeth into in verses 16 ff.

This is His first command to His disciples: “Follow me.” I always enjoy pointing out that His ministry begins in earnest with “Follow Me” and ends with “Go and make disciples”. In between these two commands Jesus makes disciples and saves the world. If you stop and think about that, you will surely gain wisdom, for you will be looking right directly at the eternal purpose of God.

Another interesting aspect to this story is that when Jesus walks up to these guys and says “Follow Me,” they actually drop everything and obey His command! What would I do if some 30-year-old kid walked up to me and said that? If I was in a really good mood I might say, “And you are… who exactly?”

These guys just dropped their nets and answered His call, and when you read that they dropped their nets, understand that those nets were their profession, not their amusement. Jesus has called you and me to do a number of things. He’s called us to love one another; do we drop our nets and follow? He has called us to make disciples, do we drop our nets and follow? I’m sure you can see where this is headed, and no, we usually put up a bit of a fuss with Him when He calls us to do something.

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been looking at various aspects of the Christian life, and taking stock of things, as we should all do periodically. Each topic we’ve looked at comes down to this: “Follow Me”. Are we following Jesus, or are we going along our own paths?  Are we following Jesus when it is easy? Are we following Him when it is hard?

Here is another way of saying the same thing: If we were arrested and charged with being a Christ follower, would there be enough evidence to convict? Hmm…

No matter how good we are doing in life, we can, with His guidance, with His help, by His mercy and grace, and with His strength, do a little better in this great Adventure that we call life.