It’s Motivational Monday and today I am motivated to ask the question: “Whom do you follow?” Whom do I follow? That’s a good question! Well, I guess it depends on what we are talking about. I have a tab on on my blog for many of the bloggers I follow. I have lots of close family, friends, distant family, former classmates, coworkers, and bloggers whom I follow on Facebook. On Twitter, I follow fellow Christians, writers, Christian musical groups, Christian celebrities, bloggers, other moms, and homeschoolers. On Pinterest, I follow more homeschoolers, bloggers, mommies, and friends who have the same interests as myself.
When I was growing up, I followed myself; I danced to the beat of my own drum. I wasn’t in the “popular” cliques and I didn’t associate or fit in with any of the other 80’s or 90’s silly cliques we had back then, but I did follow pop culture. At one point I did get swallowed up and began following the wrong crowd. Thankfully, my sweet grandmama prayed faithfully for me and that crazy phase did not last long.
When I got married, I was more the leader than the follower as I grew up thinking the woman was supposed to take charge of things. However, now that God has made me aware of His plan for marriage, husbands and wives, I follow God and the lead of my husband. I still end up taking the lead on some things because it is a learning process, but little by little I am leading less.
Society seems to follow the wrong crowd. Pop culture, people of worldly mind, celebrities, and politicians. It is ridiculous the amount of sickening idol worship I see on social media. Someone will profess to me that they are Christians, yet profile pictures are lit up in symbols that are contrary to the Word of God. They share and post with so much worship of politicians who lead our citizens contrary to God’s Word. Their posts drool with celebrities, words, and pictures that are profane. It’s so disgustingly sick that it literally makes me want to throw up. It breaks my heart to see so many people who don’t follow truth. In fact, I haven’t “unfriended” anyone on social media but there are many whom I have chosen not to follow in my feed. I don’t want that junk coming up in my feed day in and day out.
Who do we think we are fooling? We are lying to ourselves, our followers, and to God when we say we are God’s children–Christians (followers of Christ) yet we exhibit absolutely no signs of following Him. In fact they never even publicly post anything referencing God or Christianity at all (probably because they don’t want to “offend” anyone or because they are ashamed or embarrassed). Mark 8:38 says: “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Our posts, speech, thoughts are consumed with everything but Him. How much time do we really spend on the things of God? How do we think it makes Jesus feel to see us praising and worshiping people and things? I bet He feels even worse when our idols are working against Him. I know how I feel when friends and family work against me, and I haven’t done near as much as Jesus has to deserve loyalty and faithfulness.
According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of the word “follow” is: “to move or travel behind.” If we are moving or traveling behind someone or something, then that would mean we are going down the same path. If I am traveling a path of belief in values, lifestyles, and people who live contrary to God and His Word, then I can’t possibly be on the same path as God or His Son. Jesus spent time with sinners to show them God’s love and the path of repentance and forgiveness, but He did not travel the pathways of sin. He did not engage in sin. So that leads us back to our initial question: “Whom do we follow?”
On this Motivational Monday, I am compelled to follow Christ. I want to travel as close to Him as possible and as far away from sin and this world as possible. Let’s stop worshiping and following the dead end path of politicians, sinful lifestyles, ourselves, celebrities, pop culture, and the like. Grab the hand of Jesus with me and let’s follow His path together. Whom do you follow?