Article Submitted by Joel Boyles
Director of Discipleship Ministries
Cornerstone Conference IPHC
Statistics tell us that 91% of people who make New Year's Resolutions will not succeed with their goal! This year instead of making resolutions let's just Follow the Leader. Please read the following article written by Bishop Scott Hampton of the Great Plains Conference.
Follow the Leader
The following Article is by Bishop Scott Hampton
Superintendent
Great Plains Conference IPHC
Have you ever played follow the leader? I remember playing the game as a small child and following someone who went places I couldnāt go. In the town I grew up in the city park used to have a a piece of playground equipment that us kids called the lookout tower. It was basically just a tall platform but the only way up, or down, was a fire pole in the center. The lookout tower was where āfollowershipā was tested. It separated the leaders, the followers, and those who couldnāt climb itās heights. When follow the leader made its way to the lookout tower I knew that, despite my best efforts to climb that fire pole, my time as a follower was over and I was out of the game. I think about the lookout tower sometimes in relationship to the discipleship journey.
āThen He said to them all, āIf anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.ā Luke 9:23 NKJV
āAnd whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.ā Luke 14:27 NKJV
Jesus called his disciples by saying āfollow meā and ātake up your cross.ā Iām sure that āfollow meā seemed simple enough to the disciples at the time. Iām sure ātake up your crossā was more difficult to understand for them. He even went on to say that anyone who doesnāt take up their cross to follow Him canāt be a disciple. Somewhere along the journey the disciples must have learned. They followed Him through it all - the good and the bad. Discipleship isnāt easy. The road isnāt simple and there are twists and turns that lead us into uncomfortable places.
Are we following Him like that? Following Him in pulpits AND prisons? Rejoicing at the hospital with a family over new life and weeping with a family who lost someone. Laughing with people that love us and also forgiving people who have hurt us. Sometimes I accomplish this, many times I donāt because Iām still on the journey.
The lookout tower isnāt in the local park anymore. They took it down one day because it was ātoo dangerousā for a new generation of kids. I am proud to say that before it was gone, I learned to climb it. It took determination and practice. Failing and rising again but learning something about myself and how to climb the fire pole every time. Iām grateful for grace that opens the door for me to approach being a disciple the same way. It takes determination and practice to learn more about myself and what itās going to take to truly take up my cross daily. Let us never quit because itās hard or buy into a false belief that we can remove it from the discipleship journey because itās too dangerous.
Discipleship is the never ending game of follow the leader that still goes to the difficult places. There is no arrival - only obedience. Jesus still calls daily, āTake up your cross and follow me.ā
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