I'm Baaaack!! Follow the Leader
I have the wonderful blessing, every so often, of preaching at our school's elementary chapel. Please understand, I feel truly blessed by my current opportunities of preaching to those in grades 6-8, but it is always a pleasure and a joy to teach the Gospel to such youthful innocence that resides in grades K-5. Just yesterday, I was able to teach them about discipleship, by digging into a little game I've learned to call "Follow the Leader."
I don't know if you were at all like me growing up, but Follow the Leader and I had a love/hate relationship. Anytime I got to be the leader, I loved to play, but anytime I had to stand behind someone else, out came the hate. If I could change the title of the game, I would have. I would have called the game, "Lead the Followers," and everyone would have to do what I say. It saddens me to say that the name-change never took place, and I had to frump my shoulders and trudge through endless games of this activity. My emotional feelings about it aside though, this game proves to be a perfect segway into living a life "after God's own heart." There are 4 themes that you need to play a great game of "Follow the Leader," and each of them co-exist with a theme of how to live a life of Christ-following discipleship.
1) You must be willing to play. When I grew past the age of playing follow the leader, my brother was still in the midst of loving it. I can only imagine the things I'd say to him if he asked me to play. I imagine myself slouching back, arms crossed over my chest, and saying something like, "Dude, that is so uncool!" (as you can see, I was totally cool, seeing as I'd stopped playing that game somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 days before I said that for the first time.) But you know what? My brother never seemed to listen to me. He'd go off with friends and play, whether it be follow the leader or another game, he'd leave me in the dust. And this is my prayer for everyone, despite what the world may say is cool, uncool, or even good for you. I pray that, like my brother, Tommy, you'd still turn and follow God's lead, knowing in your heart that it really is the "cool" thing to do.
2) You must be a good follower. The whole point of the game is to do what the person in the very front of the line is doing. If we get too shortsighted, we end up following the person in front of us, and we end up doing something just a little bit different than what the leader is actually doing. When we follow people around us, all we're doing is following the followers! How easy is it to fall into that trap? We need to obey the commands of the Lord, and follow the only human that never followed another human, and that was Jesus. Jesus was truly the greatest follower, as the Lord asked him to follow to a point that no other human will ever go. God asked Jesus to die for the sins that were not his own, and Jesus complied. Shouldn't we strive to be like that?
3) You must play well with others. This was a fun concept for me, because I've had seasons of my life during which I have and have not played well with others. But the warning of "play well with others," still held true, for when I was not playing well with those in the game, I wasn't invited to play anymore, and that's if they even let me finish the game. In our lives following God, we must play well with other believers. Our love for others who have a personal relationship with Christ is evidence that we are a part of God's family. One of the biggest arguments against Christianity is that we're fighting all of the time. Let us seek to put the interests of others ahead of our own. And finally...
4) You must be inviting others to play. So often, we want our games to continue long past the departure of all of our friends. I still experience this today. I go and play basketball, and feel like I have hours of running and shooting left in me, but everyone has packed up to call it a night. In our spiritual lives, people will leave the game. People will move away, people will move on. We must be a leader in the realm of this game, and invite others to join a personal relationship with Christ. We must show them how fun this game can be. Part of being a disciple is making disciples, so it should be our goal to fulfill such a commission.
I hope you've enjoyed my blast into the past. I love y'all.
Bobby
I don't know if you were at all like me growing up, but Follow the Leader and I had a love/hate relationship. Anytime I got to be the leader, I loved to play, but anytime I had to stand behind someone else, out came the hate. If I could change the title of the game, I would have. I would have called the game, "Lead the Followers," and everyone would have to do what I say. It saddens me to say that the name-change never took place, and I had to frump my shoulders and trudge through endless games of this activity. My emotional feelings about it aside though, this game proves to be a perfect segway into living a life "after God's own heart." There are 4 themes that you need to play a great game of "Follow the Leader," and each of them co-exist with a theme of how to live a life of Christ-following discipleship.
1) You must be willing to play. When I grew past the age of playing follow the leader, my brother was still in the midst of loving it. I can only imagine the things I'd say to him if he asked me to play. I imagine myself slouching back, arms crossed over my chest, and saying something like, "Dude, that is so uncool!" (as you can see, I was totally cool, seeing as I'd stopped playing that game somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 days before I said that for the first time.) But you know what? My brother never seemed to listen to me. He'd go off with friends and play, whether it be follow the leader or another game, he'd leave me in the dust. And this is my prayer for everyone, despite what the world may say is cool, uncool, or even good for you. I pray that, like my brother, Tommy, you'd still turn and follow God's lead, knowing in your heart that it really is the "cool" thing to do.
2) You must be a good follower. The whole point of the game is to do what the person in the very front of the line is doing. If we get too shortsighted, we end up following the person in front of us, and we end up doing something just a little bit different than what the leader is actually doing. When we follow people around us, all we're doing is following the followers! How easy is it to fall into that trap? We need to obey the commands of the Lord, and follow the only human that never followed another human, and that was Jesus. Jesus was truly the greatest follower, as the Lord asked him to follow to a point that no other human will ever go. God asked Jesus to die for the sins that were not his own, and Jesus complied. Shouldn't we strive to be like that?
3) You must play well with others. This was a fun concept for me, because I've had seasons of my life during which I have and have not played well with others. But the warning of "play well with others," still held true, for when I was not playing well with those in the game, I wasn't invited to play anymore, and that's if they even let me finish the game. In our lives following God, we must play well with other believers. Our love for others who have a personal relationship with Christ is evidence that we are a part of God's family. One of the biggest arguments against Christianity is that we're fighting all of the time. Let us seek to put the interests of others ahead of our own. And finally...
4) You must be inviting others to play. So often, we want our games to continue long past the departure of all of our friends. I still experience this today. I go and play basketball, and feel like I have hours of running and shooting left in me, but everyone has packed up to call it a night. In our spiritual lives, people will leave the game. People will move away, people will move on. We must be a leader in the realm of this game, and invite others to join a personal relationship with Christ. We must show them how fun this game can be. Part of being a disciple is making disciples, so it should be our goal to fulfill such a commission.
I hope you've enjoyed my blast into the past. I love y'all.
Bobby
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