There is hardly a story told of a person used by God where he or she is not called away from one place to another, from something to something else. Abraham was told to leave and go to a place God would show him, later. Joseph goes to Egypt. Moses is summoned to the mountain. Israel cannot stay either in Egypt or at Sinai. I can’t help think of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, too. And, at some point Israel is summoned away from their land in order to survive by faith in captivity. John the Baptist called the people into the wilderness and repentance. The Son left God’s throne room to come among us. Paul’s blindness on the road placed him where he could see. John received Revelation ‘away’ on Patmos.

Maybe the most straightforward words to this effect are Jesus’ words to his disciples, “Come, follow me… and I will make you fishers of men” (Mk. 1). Literally these words are translated something like, “Come after me,” or “come behind me.” There are few clearer themes in scripture than this: God has no intention of leaving us where we are. God may love us just the way we are, but he never leaves us just the way we are. It’s no small thing that Zacheus was called down from the tree, and into truthful repentance about his questionable practices. God’s instruments have rarely been instrumental as they are, but only as God transforms them. Jesus’ first words to his disciples are never ‘you have so much to offer,’ but ‘come after me.’ Saul knew too much for his own good. In blindness God showed him the one thing that all his knowing had missed God’s true Messiah.

As you read the stories of God’s faithful followers, ‘staying,’ whether it be vocationally, geographically or spiritually means being full of ‘self.’ It’s being too full of our own pride (Cain), too full of our own importance (King Saul), too full of our own agenda (Peter). When we get to full of our own wisdom and knowledge they become our very weakness (Solomon). Discipleship, however, is always ‘coming after’ God where our perceived fullness may or may not be useful and we leave that up to Jesus. We’re not so concerned with getting to be where we want, and doing what we’ve prepared for the Lord’s use. We’re concerned with being where he wants us, and doing that for which he has prepared us (Eph. 2:10).

Jesus’ call on our lives not only means there is something to leave, but it means that he has something in mind for us in the place to which he calls us. Abraham left, not simply to leave, but to go to the place God would show him and where his family would thrive and bring glory to God. Jesus called disciples to come after him to bring them to the place of calling other men to him. He used the metaphor of ‘catching men’ because he was calling fishermen away from their nets and boats to a new kind of fishing. In our contemporary world he might use different language to call us, but be sure he is calling us away from our preconceived notions of what we have to offer to something deeply transformative in our lives.

When it’s said and done, Jesus’ call to discipleship makes us conformists. That may not be such an attractive idea to folks in our individualistic culture, but it’s nonetheless true. Discipleship is coming after Jesus in conformity to both his person and his purpose to reconcile all things to himself.

by Randy Couchman