Being made in God’s image means we are designed for a reflective following relationship to our Creator. Since we were designed to follow, we spend our entire lives following-its just that no one wants to admit it. Sin strives for independence. The agony of sin is that the more we reach for autonomy, the more we become enslaved as followers. The more we do life our way, the more we loose our independence. Whether the agent is drugs, food, work, sensual pleasure, alcohol, or self centeredness, independent living leads its followers to disintegration. Perhaps the greatest self-deceit is to tell ourselves that we can be self-sufficient. That runs counter to our Creator’s intention for us. We keep searching for something that can be found only in a restored relationship to Him, but the very thing we are searching for we refuse to find. The issue really is that we don’t want to follow Christ.
We restlessly probe for something to lead us to a more purposeful, meaningful existence. This sense of searching, from which we cannot escape, is present because we were created to live in a following relationship with a Superior Being who would show us the way. We are built to follow the One in whose image we were created. The purpose was to enable us to live connectedly with Someone who cared for us, who with superior wisdom and power could guide and protect us, Someone in whom we could find fulfillment and satisfaction. But sin uncoupled and diverted us. That explains the haunting sense inside us that there is Someone somewhere who could finally show us a more fulfilling, more meaningful life.
It is because we were meant to follow that independent living finally fails so dramatically.

I tell you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God-that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love as I seem beyond being able to love.

Admit this all too familiar emptiness and uncertainty, Jesus Christ invites us to accompany Him on a incredible journey toward a meaningful life, a secured future, and the power to significantly impact the world around us. From the rubble of life on our own terms, He rises like a phoenix and with boldness calls, “Follow Me.”
When Christ entered the corridors of history, He made an incredible and compelling claim- a claim that no one else has been able to make with such confidence or affirmation in the lives of those who have embraced it. He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6) Without shame or reservation, He claimed to be the defining and direction force of life. No other person In history has had so many convinced followers who were willing, not only to live for Him, but-after experiencing the reality of His claims and the pleasure of a relationship with Him- to die for him as well.
Jesus Christ claims to be the reliable source to guide and direct our instincts toward both truth and life. No one yet, through all the centuries and in a variety of cultures, who has authentically followed Him without compromise has become disillusioned or found His ways to be disappointing.
Ironically, most of us who call ourselves Christians have not felt the need to become fully devoted follower to Christ. Like those outside the faith, we too search for meaning and happiness in this flat, plastic material world. We cling tenaciously to strategic points of independence. We soothe our conscience by following Him selectively when it seems convenient and self gratifying. Then we wonder why Christianity seems sterile, ritualistic, burdensome, and sometimes boring. We, too, feel deep longings for meaning and purpose. We, likewise, feel twinges of loneliness at the core of our being- while the whole time we have in our own grasp the capacity to satisfy our souls and discover how life was meant to be. Like misters who go hungry because they refuse to buy food, we fear what will happen if we pursue Christ without reservation as the uncompromised center of our existence.
We are tired and disillusioned, achieving success with-out significance. Addicted to what we thought were objects of liberation, and weary of working for an end that only leads to emptiness, we look into the face of Christ, who has promised and abundant life. In a wonderful moment of surrender , we say,
“Help me. You are the only One who can save me, “ and Christ replies, “Follow Me.”
It is then that we begin lives’ ultimate adventure.

From The Inside Out

God created us to follow.