A New Perspective

As I come into the church each day this week, I am reminded that it has been one year since the church voted me in to be the Grand Blanc Campus Director. There were many hours of prayer and conversations with Sarah, family members, and mentors to see if this was the plan God had for the Robertson household, and leaving what seemed to be a career job with endless amounts of promotions or to go into the ministry. I say all this because even though I had the call to go into ministry, it still seemed scary. Sarah and I knew God would provide everything we needed. However, no matter how many hours I tried to make sense of how everything would work out, it would only make me want to pull my hair out more. I finally stopped and asked God “I know in my heart you are going to provide if this is your will, but help me understand it in my mind!” I needed a new perspective, just like in today's verse

“He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Jesus wants us to focus on him! The idea of no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is the idea that a farmer who is looking back while plowing forward is going to drive in a crooked line. We need to follow Jesus without hanging on to the past. We need a new perspective that keeps us following! For myself, I knew God would provide, but I still had to trust him. We have been blessed beyond measure in the last year, spending more time getting to know the people of Grand Blanc and focusing so much time on the ministry. As I write this, Sarah and I chuckle over the fact we were worried even a little bit as we knew God has us.

My encouragement to you this week and going forward is next time you are driving to work or school, look at how big the windshield is compared to the rearview mirror. Let that be an example of our lives following Jesus—Jesus needs to be the biggest thing we see.