Follow me...

Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
~ Matthew 4:19
​

Yesterday afternoon I spent time walking around a local park, taking photos, and simply watching people and their families.

Parks, airports, and hospital waiting rooms are places where we seem to have permission to sit and watch others. Frankly, I prefer parks. The surroundings are usually more peaceful, where children are allowed to run, and it doesn't seem to matter how loud your voice gets!

​I watched a young family with strollers, manuevering through the grass to reach a table in the middle of a meadow. The ups and downs, including a patch of water didn't seem to bother them.

Two people were playing tennis in a side court, and I watched as two boys climbed a fence near where a family birthday celebration was taking place, while making shadows through a plastic backdrop used to block the setting sun.

As I rounded a corner along the bayou that surrounds the park, I noticed a man with several fishing poles, all of which had lines in the water. He sat on a rail and watched. He waited to see what he might catch, but mostly, I think, he was just enjoying the peaceand quiet along the water's edge.

The words, "Follow me," came to mind as I saw him, thinking that this would be an ideal place where a man like Jesus, just starting out on his journey, would stop and begin a conversation.

While I walked silently by, I found myself imagining how those early days of Jesus' ministry must have been so very special while meeting those who would then leave everything behind to follow him, even up to the time that the silence would turn to screams from a crowd, demanding that he be crucified.

My journey would remain peaceful today, and I instead tried to remain focused on those earlier times. I asked myself, "Would I have gone with him?"

Would I have left my walk today, my home, and my family had I encountered this man named Jesus?

Could I have left everything that is my life to simply walk away, and to follow someone I just met?

​I then began to look at those in the park differently. As a follower of Jesus in those days, would I have truly been ready to sit and listen to every person I met? To be willing to walk away quietly no matter how I was treated? Could I have had the faith later to look at a large crowd and believe that a few fish and loaves would feed the multitude, and what would I have done when I saw Jesus stop, and begin to cry, when he reached the tomb of a friend, then called his name, and saw him walk out of the dark?

Today that journey would include homeless shelters, street corners, and places of worship where people have been murdered. Hospitals where people needing care were turned away because of cost, and in places where people of color were the modern day Samaritan.

No, I am not sure what my response would be. In many ways I am thankful that Jesus allows us to walk with him within.

Although I must admit, the walk in the park left me wondering what I might do if I heard the words, "Follow me."

Stay in God's grip!
​

Blessedness

Today I saw Christ
weeping
with migrant mothers
around wooden shacks
and burrows
where children learn little
except how to fight
or from their fathers
the way of despair
and lethal numbing toxins -
weeping

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
The glory of the One is real and lives in us all.

I saw Christ
gasping
for His breath in those churches
where superficial worshipers
provide lip-service justice to the hungry,
then drive home
to an overwhelming feast
and gaze at overpriced athletes -
gasping.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
The glory of the One is real and lives in us all.

I saw Christ
hoping
in the corridors of
our schools,
where the question
Why
is raised
and seeds of truth
worth living for and dying -
hoping.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
The glory of the One is real and lives in us all.

I saw Christ
struggling
in the home of
older America,
where the choice between
medicine and
food
leaves them poor and malnourished -
struggling.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
The glory of the One is real and lives in us all.

I saw Christ
enraged
in the face of doctrines
that churches promote
that separates
God from the creation,
leaving God’s children in the streets -
enraged.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
The glory of the One is real and lives in us all.

I saw Christ
dying
for the stranger
whom society
has deemed unworthy,
homeless and huddled
in a makeshift D.C. park shanty -
dying.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
The glory of the One is real and lives in us all.

O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
Grant us Your peace.

G. Todd Williams (c) 2018