Following Christ

Life doesn’t always turn out how we plan it. Often it seems to turn out almost exactly opposite of how you thought it would. The job you’ve worked so hard to get slips through your fingers. The relationship that seemed to be “it” disintegrates before your very eyes. The person that you thought you could always trust betrays you. Your dreams of being used by God in great ways never seem to materialize into more than wiping noses once a week in the nursery. When life doesn’t turn out how you have imagined, it can be painful and confusing. More than once I’ve looked at my life and thought, “Lord, I don’t understand what you are doing here! This was not the plan!”

When life hurts there is always a temptation to turn our blame towards God. After all, if we are familiar with the Scriptures, we know that God is sovereign over all things and nothing happens apart from what He has allowed (Matthew 10:28-31). And it stands to reason that if God is in control of all things, then he could have intervened in the situation in some way but chose not to. Scripture, however, teaches us that God works all things according to his purposes for those who love him (Romans 8:28) and that all of God’s ways are right and are worthy of our trust (Psalm 145:17). Our pain, disappointment, and confusion, coupled with our understanding of who God is, often create a tension in our hearts and minds. Although I see my circumstance as bad, I know that a God who loves me enough to crucify his own Son has allowed this thing to happen as part of His sovereign will for my life.

I’ll be honest … the last few years have been difficult ones for me. I’ve often found myself desperately trying to understand how something that seems so wrong and hurtful could ultimately be used for my good. In those times it’s easy to become disillusioned and jaded about life and even find yourself wondering, “Is following Christ really worth it?” I’ve been there. I’ve thought long and hard about the cost of following Christ. And each time I consider the cost it seems that the Lord always brings me back to a similar experience Simon Peter had that is recorded in John 6. It turns out that I’m not the first person to struggle when following Jesus did not turn out exactly how I thought it would. When Jesus taught his disciples about the sacrifice He would make on the cross and the cost of following Him, many of them complained and “turned back and no longer accompanied Him,” (John 6:66). Yet when Jesus asked Simon Peter if he was going to walk away as well, Simon Peter replied, “Lord, who will we go to? … We have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God!” (John 6:68-69).

And so I have found this to be the echo of my own heart. I, too, find following Christ and all that means difficult at times. I struggle with understanding some parts of Scripture and living them out. I wonder why my life has taken the twists and turns it has. But, at the end of the day, I am left with the fact that I, like Simon Peter, have come to believe and know that Jesus Christ alone has the words of life in both this age and the age to come. Living a life apart from Christ would be a life lived completely void of all that I know to be True. The very idea of such a thing should cause me to fall on my face before God—for to turn away from Christ would bring judgment upon myself. I must remember that just as much as God is loving, He is also just. And just as faith in Christ turns away the wrath of God and gives us a right standing before God, so walking away from or denying Christ brings God’s wrath upon us and leaves us condemned—a sinner before a Holy God. Hebrews 6 warns those who depart from faith in Christ of the dire implications of such actions. And so it is my prayer that you and I would remember that even when life is hard and even when we’re tempted to question if following Christ is really worth it, we would turn to, trust in, and continue to walk with Christ. If not to Christ, to whom else would we go? “There is salvation in one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).