Sola Christo

What does it mean to follow God? You hear it all the time in Baptist fundamental circles: “Just follow God.” But what does it really mean? That is what I am going to try to think through in this post. This is by no means intended to be coherent (yes, that is the word I meant to use); I am thinking and studying it even as I write. But what does it mean to follow God and how is what I find as I look through God’s Word and meditate on God himself going to change me? How will following God change the very fabric of my being, the stuff that makes me Katy? It will have to, you know. I cannot seriously go to God’s Word expecting him to speak and come away unchanged; he did not intend that to happen. Every time I go to God’s Word and come away the same as I was is a time I made a choice, conscious or not, to ignore what he had to say. I have gotten a bit off-topic, but here we go.

The first question that comes to mind is this: is the term/phrase “following God” or “follow God” actually used in the Bible? So I just looked it up and, while the Bible never uses the phrase exactly, it does use almost the same words several times, mostly in the Old Testament. Interestingly, at least to me, almost every time that phrase is mentioned, it is a question: “Why have you stopped following God?” would be a fairly accurate paraphrase. Even when God first chose to lead those who would choose to follow, people were having second thoughts.

Can’t you just imagine this scene? A shepherd (for so God often portrays himself) is leading a flock of sheep up a narrow path, when suddenly he stops and turns around. There are no longer any sheep following close at his heels; they are scattered over the hillside. One by one he calls their names (he knows them all, you know), and one by one they straggle back to the path where he is patiently waiting. “Why did you leave the path?” he gently chides them. “Why did you stop following me?” Answer and excuses fly thick and fast: “That grass over there looked much greener that that dry stuff you give us.” “I was tired of walking; I just wanted to relax.” “That other sheep was doing it.” “What that other shepherd over there was offering looked pretty good and kind of exciting.” “You weren’t paying any attention to me–I baa-ed and you didn’t answer.” And the list goes on and on. The shepherd sighs. He knows that this is just how sheep are, but sometimes he wishes they would understand that he is doing everything for their good.

That’s the end of my story, but can you see what I’m saying? In a nutshell, following God is just like that. Like a sheep, following a shepherd–blindly trusting that where ever the shepherd leads is for my own good. Maybe I’ll get into what that look likes in a later post, but for now, g’night.