Restore Church’s mission is to help the lost find and follow Jesus. The idea of following Jesus has been renewed, refreshed, and reimagined in my mind as of late, so while Landon asked me to share a bit about where I am, I find it quite easy to talk about where God has been leading me because it is all I can think about.
“Following”, though a figurative term, feels all too literal at my current stage of life. Like Landon, I have been asking myself the question “What should I do with my life?”. The pursuit of an answer to this question has led me geographically all over in the last year and a half as I have ministered with many churches in musical worship, so the term “following” feels more physical than mental or spiritual. And this reimagining of the idea has led me to refresh my preconceived notions of what Jesus meant in Matthew 16:24 when He said “follow Me.”
The typical understanding of following Jesus starts with simple rights and wrongs. The new Christian rightfully looks for the admonitions and encouragements in the Bible to establish a new moral code to get started, to keep themselves from falling off to the left of the right. If we stay in this stage of a right and wrong dichotomy too long though it leads us to thinking that there is only one specific outcome in our lives that is in the “Will of God”. Our understanding of the will of God is narrowed to one particular course in a maze with a thousand dead ends, one thin line drawn on a map we can’t see, one singular destination surrounded by a sea of failure, and one right outcome with a disappointed Father looking down on us if we fail to find it.
That is where my heart was when I started to reconsider what following Jesus really means a year and a half ago. I felt an unease with where I was and was looking for a way out. More specifically, I was looking for that one job, that one open door, that one opportunity that I knew God wanted for me. It left me paralyzed in fear that I would pick the wrong one when multiple options were presented to me and left me feeling like I had done something wrong when no opportunities were present. I knew - and still know - that I have a deep desire to work in the local church and to pursue my best friend to marriage, but at that time, I felt like I was trying to find the one way God had picked out for me, the one and only perfect way. I also felt like I was unable to determine what God wanted for me, so I continued to wait. I got excellent at spiritualizing my waiting.
“It became clear to me that Jesus doesn’t make us guess on what He wants. His Word makes it quite clear what He expects and gives us what we need to live a godly life.”
Within the past 6 months or so, I was approached by many wonderful godly counsels in my life that helped me wake up to the realities of what following Jesus means, since my over-spiritualized indecision was apparently not what He had intended when He said, “follow Me.” It became clear to me that Jesus doesn’t make us guess on what He wants. His Word makes it quite clear what He expects and that He has given us what we need to live a godly life. He sums it up as “love God and love others,” and His intention is not that those are the new rules we must follow in our own capacity or understanding. No, these are the new general guiding principles that we only have the ability to live out through His resurrection power and under the Spirit’s control.
Following Jesus is not about finding the best set of rules by which to live life then finding the singular path that is “right” while avoiding all the wrong paths. It is not about spiritualizing our waiting until we have all the answers, can make a perfect argument that it is God’s Will, and have divided every decision into right and wrong.
Following Jesus is about loving God and loving others, pursuing holiness, living for His glory, walking in the Spirit, living in the freedom that comes in the Gospel as servants to Christ, and then making decisions.
When we follow Jesus in this new way, it opens a whole new world beyond right vs wrong. When we pursue wisdom, read the Scriptures, live in community, and renew our minds to be more like Jesus, we will be living in His will whenever we make a decision.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am terrible at making decisions. Because of this, Landon recently gave me a book called Just Do Something. In it, the author recommends a simple process for following Jesus. When presented with a decision, search the Scriptures, seek wise godly counsel, pray, and a make a decision. In the freedom that Jesus gives, we don’t have to worry about finding the singular will of God. If we are living for Him, when presented with an option that is not merely wrong or right, we have the freedom to choose and live for God in those new circumstances.
You may notice I titled this entry “The Madness of Following.” You may think the madness is the frustration from a lack of definite answers, or trying to make a decision without explicit divine intervention, or having to give up the old way of thinking about following. But I mean the madness of following as something else.
The madness of following Jesus is this: the God that created all things, sustains all things, knows all things, and works all things together for good has restored me and opened a relationship with me through His Son’s death and resurrection, and more than that, He freely invites me to participate in His plans of restoration and reconciliation for the world. He chooses to put His light inside me and allows me to work for and with Him in the greatest story ever. And within that story, rather than dictating what I must do, He hands me the freedom to move and work and love and make decisions as I turn to Him over and over again in faith. The closer in relationship I grow to my amazing God, the more my heart is changed to reflect His heart.
“The madness of following is that I have the opportunity to follow Him openly in making decisions.”
The madness of following is that I have the opportunity to follow Him openly in making decisions. Indecisive, foolish, finite “me” gets to gets to follow the holy, all-wise, infinite God of the universe rather than being directly told what to do. This is madness. This is a special kind of loving, growing relationship. This is a process.
The fear that I once knew from picking the wrong choice is still there but its waning. The joy that I now know from the freedom of following Jesus is growing. This season of looking into ministries all over the country and helping with a brand new church in my own back yard has forced me to confront my erroneous understandings of following Jesus and have pushed me toward faith and prayer like never before.
I still don't know where I'll end up, but my mindset is less about big scary decisions, and more about a thousand little decisions. Lately, I have had the honor of working with Landon at the very beginning of this new church, and every step of the way I am trusting that God would bring growth to the seeds He is letting me sow now, regardless of whether or not I see them personally.
I’ll soon make some more decisions, and shortly thereafter more decisions will undoubtedly appear. Decision making is a constant, life-long thing, so I’ll follow Jesus through every round of decisions, knowing that I’m not trying to guess God’s will. He will guide me as I turn to Him in practical ways at every twist and turn. There is great freedom in that.
I trust that if I follow Jesus through prayer, through Scripture, through godly wisdom, through the little things that require faith and faithfulness, He will take me to where I need to be, help me be the person I need to be while I’m there, and take me on to the next grand adventure when the time is right.
It can be a messy process, but as someone recently said to me, “Its a roller coaster either way. You can either hang on with white knuckles or you can throw your hands in the air and enjoy it.”
I choose the latter.
- Dan
ABOUT DAN
Dan Beaulieu is student ministries graduate from Clarks Summit University. Born and raised in Goffstown, NH, he is excited to see God move and work in a new church in his hometown.
