I have a dog that worships me in the simplest of terms.
Make no mistake about it – she’s a dog and does dogly things. She harasses the cat, chews on things, bargains for treats, and does a pretty good job delivering and nursing puppies. But her one priority, above all else, is to follow me.
What’s funny is that she’s anything but sentimental about it. Unlike Gabbi, her older counterpart, Gracie rarely looks devoted. But wherever I go, there she wants to be. In simplest terms, she has made me the center of her world.
This isn’t about dogs. It’s about you. About me. About worship. It’s about following Jesus – without a doubt the most common way He referred to a life discipleship, devotion, and worship.
You see it repeatedly in the gospels. “Follow Me” with a promise attached. “Follow Me” at the tail end of a stinging rebuke. “Follow Me” as the solution to a perplexing question about life or theology. “Follow Me” as an immediate, exclusive point of decision.
I have this crazy thought. Maybe Jesus wants us to follow Him, too. And maybe that’s a more significant expression of worship than a lot of the other forms we love to discuss or debate. What could declare the worth of Jesus Christ more than steadily, simply going where He goes – of pursuing our sense of His presence and leadership?
Worshipping Jesus as a Follower
To follow Jesus means establishing Him as our highest calling or way of life. Where He goes, we go. Where others go, we only go if it’s in the context of following Jesus. I worship Him when I forsake all other competing values.
Following Jesus means responding to His authority and obeying His directions. Inevitably that means denying ourselves (Matthew 16:24-26) and embracing His agenda. Worship in its purest form sometimes takes place in the grit of giving up my will for His.
Following Jesus means attending to Him – fixing our attention or meditating on Him. It’s what the author of Hebrews had in mind when he referred to fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). To so adore Him that I keep Him central to all else that passes through my very distracting day is to worship Him.
Following Jesus means He goes first. Sometimes Gracie tries to shortcut the following process by anticipating where I will go (actually sometimes I think she’s trying to lead me). But she gets it right less than half the time. Peter did that with Jesus on more than one occasion, and the results weren’t pretty. Mine, of course, are no better. Eager anticipation is one thing; presumption is another. Worship means waiting for Him!
Following Jesus means imitating Him, in much the say way that little children follow the leader by imitating the leader. “Follow God’s example in everything you do just as a much loved child imitates his father. Be full of love for others, following the example of Christ who loved you and gave himself to God as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased, for Christ’s love for you was like sweet perfume to him” (Ephesians 5:1-2, LB). If imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery, then doesn’t it make sense that loving like Jesus did is the sincerest form of worship?
Following Jesus means pursuing Him when we sense a distance – what A.W. Tozer called “following hard after God.” Sometimes the most worshipful thing you can do is cling to Him, chase after Him, cry out in search of Him, or come home to Him, as the Prodigal Son did in Jesus’ parable.
I Have Decided
It’s not hip to refer to Christians as “Christians” anymore because the term has come to represent a lot of negative things or a lot of, well, nothing. The most popular replacement these days is “Christ follower.” Fair enough… if that’s what we’re actually doing.
But would you worship Jesus by following Him to the same kinds of places He went during His earthly sojourn? To 40 days of loneliness, torture, and testing? How about through the constant engagement with the needs of the neediest? Or the nagging disapproval of the church power structure? Or the teaching opportunities and speaking engagements? Or pouring your life into 12 people who at times just didn’t seem to get it? Or hours of agony in prayer? Or a cross?
Any one of these points and many more requires a decision. Either He’s worthy of following or He isn’t. That’s the (less famous) decision Peter made when people had deserted Jesus by the hundreds and the Lord asked Simon and his companions, “Will you desert Me, too?”
“Lord, to whom shall we go?” Peter asked. “You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:68-69, NKJ).
That, friends, is moment-of-truth worship.
We love to talk about worship with words like “entering in.” Following Jesus means never “exiting out.” And the beauty of His sacrifice on the cross is that because of it, any believer, anytime, anywhere, can follow Christ, now.
What would that mean for you, now, in this moment?