I’m here in Mexico with 18 people between the ages of 22 and 35 who have sold everything they own to
follow Jesus for a year, demonstrating the epitome of
reckless abandon. We’ve got a week to train them and then we’ll send them off in
Matthew 10 style. It’s incredibly inspiring.
They will live out of a backpack and will depend on God in ways that they would never have to back home. In so doing, I believe that they’ll discover their birthrights as disciples.
We in America have it too easy – we can’t understand God’s power until we have to depend on Him radically. We cannot achieve God’s best for our life until we’ve made this decision to throw caution to the wind and follow our heart.
This was the path that Jesus asked his twelve disciples to walk. It is the path that he asks those of us who are his modern-day disciples to walk upon as well.
When he first talked to them, each of the twelve disciples felt a deep stirring in their hearts. They knew that they were at a crossroads. They could either continue to follow the conventional path they were on, or they could leave family and friends behind, recklessly abandoning all in order to follow Jesus.
Jesus’ call to disciples everywhere is the same today. He asks us, “Do you trust me?” And when we answer, “Yes,” he responds by saying, “Then jump off this cliff – I’ll catch you.”
That call to jump, to be willing to sacrifice anything to follow Jesus, sounds radical to our sophisticated ears and ever-calculating hearts.
The amazing this is, that radical message tugs at the heartstrings of so many youth and young adults in our postmodern society. I was just talking to some teenagers at my church who struggle with believing God is real – usually because of a lack of tangible involvement of Him in their lives. Radical is refreshing and inspiring to the apathetic and carnal heart.