...ten years from now?

"Ten years from now, what do you imagine your life will look like?"

That questions gets asked often enough. For some people, the answer comes easily. Father's pass on their businesses to their sons. Those sons get married, raise a family, become a strong part of their community. The daughter grows up, maybe goes to college, eventually settles down. They answer easily that their lives will probably look like the lives of the generations who lived before them. For others, there are dreams of a successful career with lots of money. For others, it's of adventure and risk-taking. For others it's academia or politics or the arts. Ten years is long enough to be uncertain, but short enough to need vision and direction, and therefore it gets asked.

I wonder if Peter ever thought about that as a fifteen year old boy. Probably his estimation was that in ten years, he would take over the fishing business and continue the tradition of being a fisherman. LIttle did he know Who would walk into his life: someone who would call him to fish, but in a very different way.

"Follow me." Those words changed the fabric of his existence. Not just once, but continually. The initial call came in that way--no prerequisites that promised safety or ease. Simply an offer to walk with the man Who issued the challenge. Peter followed immediately

Three years later, after his life has been turned upside down about 20 million different ways, with every dimension of his being unable to escape the hand of God, Jesus comes and eats breakfast with him. This is after He has been resurrected from the dead; after Peter denied him; after Peter walked in his inner circle for three years, watching Him heal the sick in body and heart. After that, I bet you listen pretty carefully to every word someone says to you.

"Peter, do you love me?"
"Yes, Lord; You know that I love You."
"Feed My sheep."

Then, Jesus outright told Peter, "Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. Follow me."

Follow Me.

Jesus knew that Peter was fishing again, having returned to his former career after Jesus was arrested and crucified. And He knew that the fathers before him fished, too. But that didn't stop the call. Peter had a wife, and probably a family. That didn't stop the call. That didn't make the cost any less or the challenge any safer.

I was thinking about that today. There are nations on my heart. Nations consist of people, of "sheep". Yet, ten years from now, if I decide I want to follow a comfortable path and live for the will of man, building my own kingdom, that won't stop God from asking me to follow HIm. He'll look at me with those eyes that show an immensity of love that both pursues and knows when to let go, and my heart will have to decide. Christ's vulnerability and honesty call me to be real with the call. The cost has not decreased. Peter fed the sheep. And Peter died walking out this mandate. He didn't die from old age. HIs death was crucifixion, upside down. Jesus told him outright that this would happen. Peter counted the cost, and because he loved Jesus, he chose to feed the sheep. He could have stayed on the fishing boat, selling fish. But every day he would be restless, haunted, unfufilled. Intead, he laid everything secure at the feet of God, and followed him. I don't think he regreted that decision.