Follow Me

I watched it happen while sitting inside the Little Falls Bakery and Deli.  I have witnessed scenes like this before.  They are not all that uncommon and perhaps you to have witness them play out from time to time in a somewhat similar fashion.  In this case, I watched a mother of 3 corralling her young children toward the corner of the sidewalk.  The mother pushed the stroller, which carried the baby, with one hand while holding the hand of a sweet pigtailed girl with the other.  The boy, guessed to be about 5 years old, was unattached and loving his freedom. Hyped from his recently consumed sugary confection, he danced and hopped around his struggling mother as they made their way down the sidewalk. As they reached the corner, the mother stopped the stroller and prepared to cross the semi busy main street of Little Falls.  The boy however, did not stop; he continued to hop off of the curb and began scuffling into the street. 

I am not sure where it came from, but fast as lightning the mother grew a third arm and snatched her 5 year old son back to the sidewalk.  His head jerked suddenly from the unsuspecting force and his eyes went wide with surprise. The mother’s third arm disappeared as quickly as it had immerged, as I could find no further evidence of the extra extremity.  I then watched but did not hear the obvious reprimand that followed.  I trust that this was a strong lesson for the boy. I even understood the lesson…”Follow Mom.”

Jesus has a similar lesson for Peter at one point in his ministry.  In Matthew 16:20-28, Jesus begins to tell his disciples of what the future holds for him…a future that includes suffering and death.  Peter believes this future to be optional and rebukes Jesus, insisting that he will not allow this to happen to Jesus.  I think this is the moment that Peter steps off of the proverbial curb.  It is Jesus’ job to lead and it is Peter’s job to follow.  However, Peter is taking the lead now…and Jesus says, “Get behind me.” In other words, Jesus is saying…”I don’t follow you…rather you follow me.”

Following Jesus is not all ice cream and steak dinners.  Following Jesus means suffering what Jesus suffered.  It means following him wherever he takes us. It means taking up our crosses daily…and following Him.

May we come to follow Jesus and not expect him to follow us.

Who's That Guy?

My youngest child recently began her first job.  She was hired at a local eatery establishment in Little Falls, MN. Sarah and I wanted to support our daughter in this new endeavor, so we made the decision to patron the establishment on one of her first shifts to embarrass…or rather, encourage her. 

Ironically, as Sarah and I entered and made our order, our daughter was nowhere to be seen.  In fact, we never did end up seeing her that night, though we did hear her voice back in the kitchen.

At the completion of her shift we picked her up (as she is only 15) and she filled us in on all of the behind the scenes talk of the night.  Apparently...I was the topic of discussion in the back kitchen while me and Sarah shared our chocolate shake. The following is a verbatim of the conversation…names have been changed…mostly because Erica doesn’t know the names of all of her coworkers.

“Do you know who that guy is?” asked the old gray haired guy.

“Who?” asked the old gray haired man’s wife who does not have gray hair.

“That guy out there?” said the old gray haired guy.

“I don’t know…he looks familiar I guess.” Said the old gray haired man’s wife who does not have gray hair.

“He was the track coach in Royalton.” Said the old gray haired guy.

“Oh, doesn’t he coach track in Little Falls now?” Said the old gray haired man’s wife who does not have gray hair.

“Yeah, I think so, wasn’t he also the wrestling coach in Little Falls to?” Said the young pink haired girl who may or may not be related to the gray haired guy and his not gray haired wife.

“I think you are right!” Said the old gray haired guy.

“I am pretty sure he is also the Pastor over at the Alliance Church next to Minnesota Power.” Said the old gray haired man’s wife who does not have gray hair.

“Erica, do you know who that guy out there is?” asked the pink haired girl who may or may not be related to the old gray haired guy and his wife who does not have gray hair.

“That’s my dad.” Said Erica, the daughter of the guy who is sharing a chocolate shake with his wife, while sitting in the booth at the local establishment.

I found Erica’s recollection of the story pretty entertaining…and a little confusing, since I had no idea who any of these people were.  Yet, they seemed to have a rather extensive awareness of me.  I was reminded of the encounter that Jesus has with his disciples in Matthew 16:13-20. Jesus asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples respond with a variety of options, such as, John the Baptist, a prophet, Elijah or Jeremiah. Jesus then asks them, “But what about you? Who do you say that I am?”  It is Peter who responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” 

This is an astounding revelation that has come out of the mouth of Peter.  So much so, that Jesus states that this revelation has come to Peter from God himself. Jesus follows up this affirmation with a proclamation of his own, that the church will be established on this “rock.”

This is the foundation of the church…but it is not on a person or a building, but rather on the very Word of God…Jesus!

May we come to see and testify that Jesus has established His Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it!

 Dandelions...Part II

The other day my mother shared a picture of the current condition of her childhood home.  This was the same home that I knew as Grandma’s house.  Ironically, Grandpa’s house was the house next door.  Before you draw any conclusions about my grandparents being some separated Hatfield-McCoy marriage debacle, let me reassure you that my parents grew up as next door neighbors.  This made it exceptionally convenient as a young grandson.  For example, if I found, while visiting my grandfather, that he didn’t have any sweet treats to my liking, I could run across the driveway to Grandma’s house and scope out the confections.

Grandma’s house was a magical place, filled with candies, treats, mysterious rooms and a smokey blue haze from my other grandpa.  It was hard to tell if his marshmallow cookies had actually been “smoked” to perfection or if you just tasted the flavor of the air. 

Grandma’s house was the kind of place where sugar plums truly danced in your head.  Though honestly, even on Christmas Eve, I never had sugar plums dancing in my head.  My head was usually filled with bows and arrows and guns and gophers two stepping between my ears. 

As I grew older, I found myself helping Grandma with a number of things around her candy filled home.  I would cut the grass, paint the walls, haul in wood and swing from her weeping willow in attempt to relive the adventures of Indiana Jones.  The weeping willow really wasn’t strong enough to make swinging viable, so when the long branches snapped off, we continued the adventures using the long soft branches as whips.  This game was frowned upon by the lesser dominant siblings and cousins. 

I also remember the dandelions.  Grandma’s lawn was a perpetual battle of green and yellow and cotton white puffs.  We would often pick the yellow flowers and rub them against our skin giving each other “butter burns.”  The yellow mark left on our skin would linger for days.  Grandma always encouraged us to pick the dandelions.

“Keep going boys! Get rid of all of those stubborn weeds!”

I never fully understood how a bright yellow flower could be considered a “weed,” but, despite that, I picked them.  Additionally, I would pick the white puffs and blow them, unwittingly, spreading the seed for the noxious weed to expand even further and broader across her lawn and to the neighbors.

“Oh! Don’t blow those! That spreads even more dandelions!”

Nearly every homeowner struggles to control the aggressive spread of the yellow bane.  In fact, in 1935 Minot ND threatened all homeowner with arrest if they failed to immediately cut or remove dandelions before they became the fun white puffs.  I must admit, that Minot took their dandelion issue very seriously.

In a similar fashion, Jesus takes the spreading of false teachings seriously.  In Matthew 16:1-12, two groups of proverbial “weeds,” the Pharisees and the Sadducees, join forces to confront Jesus and disprove his truth claims.  Jesus uses this moment to speak of the severity of the “yeast” that they are spreading that will affect all it comes in contact with.  This passage confronts us with the choice, will we accept the truth of Jesus? Or our own truth systems?  Jesus wants to crush our own truth systems, in order to draw us to him…the real and perfect truth.

May we come to see and cling to the truth of Jesus alone.