I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.  Psalm 16:8, NKJV

What have you been following lately?  "Follow me" or "Follow me for more" has become a common invitation woven throughout our media-saturated lives these days.  It's verbiage for subscribing to a news outlet, a YouTube channel, a favorite podcast, or a friend's profile.  In today's lingo, we "follow" the things or people we show interest in and want to keep updated about.  But to the first disciples of Jesus, "Follow Me" meant so much more than receiving new content on their daily media feed.  Those two words were an invitation to a new life altogether.

TRANSFORMATION

Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become..." Mark 1:17a, NKJV

It was a life-changing conversation.  When Jesus called Simon and his brother Andrew to follow Him, it was anything but casual.  The new Rabbi from Galilee didn't say much to the seasoned fishermen, but the invitation landed with undeniable force.  Though His words were few, they were carefully crafted.  Notice the pledge Jesus makes right on the heels of the imperative:  "...and I will make you..." 

The invitation to follow Jesus -- both in the disciples' day and our day -- is at the same time a promise to be made into something we were not before.

Saying "Yes" to this invitation is saying "Yes" to personal transformation.  To follow Jesus is to take the Lord up on His pledge to make us into something new.

MISSION

"...and I will make you become fishers of men." Mark 1:17b, NKJV

Jesus' pledge to author something new in our lives is accompanied with a specific direction to that recreation.  To Simon and Andrew, He qualified this experience of transformation with a clear mission:  they would become fishers of men.  These two brothers had spent their lives on the sea watching for fish, waiting for fish, finding their significance on whether or not they caught any fish.  Jesus used what they were most familiar with to cast vision for their new mission.  The new life ahead of them would redirect their fishing experience and expertise, employing their strengths not for personal gain but for others' blessing.  

In this way, saying "Yes" to Jesus' invitation is also saying "Yes" to an others-centered mission.  

To follow Jesus is to let Him leverage our greatest strengths to make it easy for others to know Jesus as their Savior.

CRUCIFIXION 

They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Mark 1:18, NKJV

The red letters in my Bible say nothing about instructions to leave their nets behind, but Simon and Andrew responded in this way with immediacy.  

They understood something about Jesus' invitation right away:  keeping close proximity with Jesus required a supreme loyalty to Jesus.  

Their fishing nets had been their source of identity and livelihood, but they were now choosing to let go of those former definitions of worth.  In this way, saying "Yes" to Jesus' invitation is also saying "Yes" to the crucifixion of self, laying aside their former life and all its attempts to live apart from Jesus.  It may seem like a drastic jump to draw out "crucifixion" from the mere act of leaving nets behind, but Jesus develops this principle later on when He explicitly links the experience of taking up our cross with following Him: "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Mk. 8:34).  And then again, when re-commissioning Peter after he had blatantly denied the Savior rather than himself, Jesus repeats the two-word invitation "Follow Me" right after revealing to Peter that his life would eventually end in literal crucifixion (Jn. 21:18-19).  In essence, Jesus calls Peter and us to follow Him no matter where the path may lead.  Even if that path leads to physical crucifixion or the loss of life, the invitation to follow Him is an invitation to lay self to the dust and let our sense of worth and significance be bound up in our supreme love for Jesus.

So again, who or what are you following these days?  If you follow a favorite sports team closely, you probably know the ups and downs that come with their wins and losses.  Or maybe you followed the results of the presidential election late into the night earlier this week like many other Americans.  Whether you woke up the next morning discouraged or encouraged, the bigger reality is that we all have the opportunity to follow Jesus and set our supreme love and affection upon Him.  The psalmist in Psalm 16:8, we can choose to set the Lord always before us no matter what the news is saying, how our teams are doing, or how society is trending. And when we set the Lord always before us, we can rest assured that we shall not be moved or shaken because He is always by our side.  Friends, let's say "Yes" to following Jesus above any human individual or institution, and in doing so may we each experience personal transformation, others-centered mission, and self-crucifixion.