You’re Being Followed
Hey Friends,
This past week wasn’t exactly ideal. Each day I could’ve said ,”This is the day that the Lord has made,” but at the end of the week… I’m not so sure. (Just kidding of course.) It just seemed like as soon as Easter was over, a number of things in my world seemed to all of a sudden turn to trials. (Lesson #1- It’s not about me, it’s about Him)
Imagine if only we could order life the way we order gourmet coffee. Wouldn’t you love to mix and match ingredients of your future. “I’ll have a tall decaf of longevity and adventure, with 2 shots of good health, and make sure it’s consequence and danger free.” Take me to that coffee shop. Too bad it doesn’t exist. Truth is, life often hands us a concoction entirely different from the one we requested. Ever feel like the barista-from-above called your name and handed you a cup of unwanted stress?
“A hot cup of job transfer six months before your daughter’s graduation. Would you like some patience with that?” Life comes caffeinated with surprise. Modifications. Transitions. Alterations. You move down the ladder, out of the house, over for the new guy, up through the system. Life happens.
Your hope? You have a travel companion. The Holy Spirit has promised never to leave you. Ever. When you place your faith in Christ, Christ places his Spirit before, behind, and within you. Not a strange spirit, but the same Spirit: the parakletos. Everything Jesus did for his followers, his Spirit does for you. Jesus taught; the Spirit teaches. Jesus healed; the Spirit heals. Jesus comforted; his Spirit comforts. As Jesus sends you into new seasons, he sends his counselor to go with you.
God treats you the way one mother treated her young son, Timmy. She didn’t like the thought of Timmy walking to his first-grade class unaccompanied. But he was too grown-up to be seen with his mother. “Besides,” he explained, “I can walk with a friend.” So she did her best to stay calm, quoting the Twenty-third Psalm to him every morning: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…”
One school day she came up with an idea. She asked a neighbor to follow Timmy to school in the mornings, staying at a distance, lest he notice her. The neighbor was happy to oblige. She took her toddler on morning walks anyway. After several days Timmy’s friend noticed the lady and the child. “Do you know who that woman is who follows us to school?” “Sure,” Timmy answered. “That’s Shirley Goodnest and her daughter Marcy.” “Who?”
“My mom reads about them every day in the Twenty-third Psalm. She says, ‘Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life.’ Guess I’ll have to get used to them.” You will too. God never sends you out alone. Are you on the eve of change? Do you find yourself looking into a new chapter? Is the foliage of your world showing signs of a new season? Heaven’s message for you is clear: when everything else changes, God presence never does. You journey in the company of the Holy Spirit, who “will teach you and will remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26 NLT).