Listen to today’s devo!

“Follow me,” Jesus told him. (Mark 2:14)

How many times do you find yourself at a store searching for an item you can’t find? This happens to me a lot, especially at the hardware store. My first instinct is to try and find it myself, but if that fails, I ask a store associate. Sometimes they tell me where the item is located: “Go down that way ‘til you get to aisle 12, turn left, and it’s toward the middle.” Then I go wandering off that direction and hunting for a while. The best associates are the ones who don’t give directions; they simply say, “Follow me.” They know exactly where they are going, and all I have to do is walk right behind them until we get there.

After all these years, with all our amazing technological advancements, it’s still as simple as this: “Follow me.” Human beings learn best by watching and participating with other human beings. Reading is helpful. Videos are convenient. But there’s something about an incarnate relationship that transforms us. How was Jesus going to change Levi, a selfish and corrupt government worker, into a new and godly person? He didn’t walk up to his tax collection booth and give him a list of rules. He didn’t even hand him the Torah. (Levi probably already knew it anyway.) Jesus himself was going to be the lesson on living.

Study Jesus, and then find a mentor who lives like Jesus.

Jarod Osborne is lead pastor of Pathway [Wesleyan] Church, in Warsaw, Indiana. He is the author of Jaded Faith (WPH).

© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.