Hunting with Dad

​I remember when I was a little guy and my dad took me hunting. He was walking me to the stand that I would be sitting in. As we walked to the stand that afternoon, I remember walking through the bushes and they were taller than me. My dad walked in front of me clearing the way and creating a path so that it would be easier for me to walk to my stand. As a little guy, it was not easy walking through this, but my Dad sure made it look easy.  As we continued to walk I was skeptical if we were going to ever make it to the stand. It felt like it took forever. When I shared this story in one of my sales presentations a few weeks ago, it hit my heart that isn’t this what God does for us when we follow him? Think about this situation with my Dad, what if I decided to walk before him and not wait on him to clear the path? Would it have been easy for me to go through, not knowing actually where I was going; I would have gotten lost. Even if I was walking next to him I still would have had a difficult time going through the woods because I would have had to make my own path in the thick brush. Yes, I followed my Dad through the woods and he cleared a path but I still struggle walking through it, but it was so much easier by following him.
 
Jesus calls us to do the same thing and that is following him. I followed my Dad because I was committed to him and trusted him. Jesus says follow Him and trust Him. He never said it would be an easy walk. Just like it was not an easy walk through the woods with my Dad, but the path was a lot clearer by following him. There are many people who say they want to follow Jesus. And that's good. But that commitment will be challenged. We must decide to follow Jesus—not because our best friend is, not because our boyfriend or girlfriend is, not because our parents are, but because we have chosen in our own heart of hearts to follow Christ. Following my Dad that day was easy for me because I trusted him and believed he knew where he was going. He had walked the path before and knew the direction.
 
This is why God sent Jesus, because He wanted us to see that He understood our walk because He walked it on Earth with us. However, many of us can get caught up in the moment. It's like watching an Olympic medal ceremony. We see someone representing their nation standing up on that pedestal. As the gold medal is placed around the athlete's neck and the flag of his or her country is raised while the national anthem plays, we say, "I want to be an Olympic athlete. That's what I want to do." But do we realize the hours, days, months, and years of training that these athletes dedicate to participate in one competition? We get excited about the medal ceremonies but are we willing to go through the training? Are we willing to do the hard work? Is our commitment to Him and Him alone? Are we willing to be real followers of Jesus?