When we lived in the bush, we hiked everywhere. The Pal people don’t live in one or two main villages; they live in fifty tiny villages spread all over the mountains. From our house, we could hike for about 45 minutes in either direction and reach 10 of them, but for access to any others we’re talking anywhere from 90 minutes to 4 hours of brutal, up-and-down hiking on trails that make your dirt driveway look like a major freeway.
So hiking was a part of everyday life. And while we were there, we definitely got better at it over time. When we were brand new to the trails, baseball cleats and a sturdy stick in each hand helped some, but I still hobbled like an old lady. I regularly had to swallow my pride and let a 6-year-old hold my hand to help me down a slippery hill. I guess it’s no surprise, then, that my village friends got in the habit of hiking behind me. I think part of the reason was that no one wanted to be downhill of me if I got to sliding out of control, but mainly it was a protective position. From behind me, they could see both me and the trail ahead. They could point out the best route and also keep an eye on me, ready to grab me under the armpit if I showed any sign of faltering.
These days I’m an expert on muddy trails… for a whiteskin. Now I get to enjoy the sight of visitors and newcomers to the bush as they slip and flail and go to great and futile lengths to avoid getting muddy and still maintain some semblance of balance. I get to suppress the giggles and ask my village friends, “Is that what I used to look like?” (Maybe that’s another reason they liked to stay where they could see me on a hike!) These days I no longer get to hike through the jungle every day, but lately I’ve been thinking about what it means to follow Jesus. What does it really mean to be a Christian? What are we supposed to do after we “ask Jesus into our hearts”? How do we abide in Christ?
These are all things that we hear a lot, and maybe we even say them a lot, but do we know what they mean? Or do these questions just bring up some vague, nebulous thoughts about believing that Jesus died for me and doing good things and trusting God? I always tell my students that God’s will is not meant to be a secret; the salvation that He gives us doesn’t need to be covered up by “Christian-y” sounding phrases or deciphered by some guy on TikTok who claims to be a theologist. It is plain and clear in Scripture what it means to follow God and abide in Christ, but for some reason I don’t often hear people talk about it.
Before we go to the Bible, let’s talk about the idea of following in general. When you were a kid, did you play Follow the Leader? I did, sometimes. To tell you the truth, I always thought it was a pretty boring game. Most of the time it involved the kid who was the Leader just doing the craziest, weirdest things he or she could think of because they knew that everyone behind them had to do it, too. I mean, if you didn’t do what the Leader was doing, you weren’t following. You were just walking in close proximity. And if you’re not following, what’s the point of that?
When Jesus called his disciples, he said, “Follow me.” He didn’t say, “Believe in me,” or “Ask me into your heart.” And in order to follow Jesus, they had to do what he did, just like the game. In John 14:15 he said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” There it is. It’s that simple. If you believe that Jesus is who he said he was, then you will love him. If you love him, you will keep his commandments. And that is what it means to follow him.
Think about Jesus and the disciples in their epic game of Follow the Leader (which was not boring the way Jesus played it!). Jesus got baptized, and then his disciples did it. He preached the Kingdom and healed the sick and cast out demons, and then his disciples did it. Towards the end of his life he washed their feet and then told them they should do it. He said they needed to love each other the way he had loved them. He told them that the world would hate them the same way it hated him. Sure enough, after he was arrested, tried, beaten, and killed, they followed him in those things, too. And in the same way that he was resurrected, one day they will follow him in that.
The first part of John 15 gives us Jesus’ commands to abide in him. Many of these are well-known: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit…” “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” That sounds like a pretty good deal! But when I asked my kids what it means to abide, the 17-year-old was the only one who knew the definition: to remain. So what does it mean to remain in Jesus? They couldn’t tell me.
That’s such a shame! Especially because the answer is right there if you just keep reading John 15: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” (But how, Jesus?) “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” If you want to abide in Christ, if you want to follow God, if you want to be a Christian, you must do what Jesus said to do. You must follow your Leader and do what he does.
If you are a follower of Jesus, do you know what it is you are meant to be doing? Or does your faith begin and end with “inviting Jesus into your life” and then going to church every Sunday? There’s a reason that Paul constantly referred to himself as the bondservant (slave) of Christ. He knew that following Jesus meant doing stuff! And he wasn’t confused about what that meant–he heard the commands of Christ from the people who lived with him before he died and saw him after he came back to life. I challenge you to do some research and make a list of the things that Jesus specifically told his followers to do, and then make it your life’s mission to do them. Not because the things you do will make Jesus love you, but because doing what he commanded is what it means for you to love him. If you are not keeping his commandments (or only keeping the easy ones) what does that tell the world about your love for him (or his love for them)?
Now back to hiking in Pal. When I’d be out on the trails with friends, they’d walk behind me. And if I hesitated or seemed about to take a wrong turn, they’d always say, “We bckc yav.” “Go down that road.” They’d explain, “This other road isn’t good; don’t go this way. Go that way.” Sometimes my pride got the upper hand and I’d forge ahead on the path I thought looked good, but they were usually right. Because of this experience, when I came across Isaiah 30:21, it shot me in the stomach (as they say in Pal). Isaiah is prophesying to Israel about a time in its future when God won’t hide himself from them anymore. They will see him with their own eyes, “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” And Israel’s future is our present reality. Our God is not hiding. He is with us. We have his Holy Spirit. And when we try to follow him, he is right there behind us, showing us the road. “We bckc yav. This is the way, walk in it.”
With Micah out on his own, I pray that he will listen to his Guide. I pray it for all my kids. I pray that they (and I) will only take the steps that were first laid down by Christ and are now shown to us by the Spirit. “We bckc yav. This is the way.” Now walk in it.