Have you ever felt a question sink into your soul, stirring something long buried? Questions that awaken us to the deep journey of following Jesus home.

Some questions whisper through our lives like the wind, while others crash like waves against the shore, reshaping everything in their wake: “Will you marry me?” or “Will you take this job?” Perhaps a question like mine, “Have you ever considered that you are being called to pastoral ministry?” The words came from a pastor, but they echoed something more profound—something my immigrant grandmother had first spoken of me when I was just a child: “This one will be the pastor.” I had chosen another path, a Ph.D. in history, but this question brought me back to a calling I thought I had silenced.

Henri Nouwen asks us a question just as piercing: 

“Are you following Jesus? Not in name alone, not in habit or tradition, but in the depths of your being. Are you a follower?” [1]

Come and See

One of our most important pictures is of Jesus calling his first followers.  John the Baptist said to them, “Look! There is the Lamb of God.” We find Jesus as others point us to him. They became curious about him and asked a logical question, “Where are you staying?”

A simple question, but what they sought was more than a place—they wanted to know his way, his life, his heart. Jesus did not give them a map. He did not give them an explanation. Instead, Jesus gave them an invitation: “Come and see.”  He extends an invitation to them, as he always does to us all.  He becomes our host, welcoming us to his table.

“God wants to be our room, our house.  He wants to be anything that makes us feel at home…. We want to be in the House of God—to feel safe, to be embraced, to be loved, to be cared for…”[2]

How do you respond to an invitation that can shape your life forever?

Three Ways We Respond

We answer in different ways, sometimes without even realizing it:

  • I follow with conviction. My feet are steady, my heart resolved.
  • I am a restless wanderer. My life is movement—chasing, striving, running from one thing to the next. The world calls it ambition, but I call it exhaustion. My heart is scattered, my soul weary.
  • I sit on the sidelines. Perhaps from doubt. Perhaps from fear. I watch, uncertain, unengaged, lost in distraction.

To each of us, Jesus speaks the exact words: Follow me. Come, walk with me. Watch. Listen. Abide.

Fixing Our Eyes

What we fix our eyes upon shapes us. Whom we fix our eyes upon likewise shapes our actions, values, ethics, and spiritual direction. The world begs for our attention—leaders, fame, power, distraction. Many of us know more about a singer, politician, podcaster, or so-called “influencer” than we do about one whom the Bible said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and pitched its tent among us.” That Word is Jesus. When the first would-be followers looked at Jesus, they saw:

  • The Lamb of God. The embodiment of humility, gentleness, and peace.
  • A heart longing for communion. He did not stand at a distance but welcomed them into his life, into his dwelling. Like the good shepherd of Psalm 23, he set a table before them, overflowing with grace.
  • A sacred purpose. Jesus had come to bear the weight of the world’s sin, to redeem, to restore.

Finding Home in Jesus

Henri Nouwen once wrote, 

“The Lord is my refuge. The Lord is my tent. The Lord is my temple. The Lord is my dwelling place. The Lord is my home. To follow Jesus is not merely to walk behind him—it is to find home in him….[3]  The Spiritual life means you are part of the family of God.” [4]

Today, the same invitation remains. Come and see.

Practice:

Write an honest letter to yourself and answer Nouwen’s question:  “Am I a follower of Jesus…or perhaps just a wanderer or someone sitting on the sidelines?”  How might Jesus ask you to come, see, abide, and follow?

Mentor’s Practice: Following Together

When you meet with someone you’re mentoring this week, begin by reading aloud Jesus’ invitation in John 1:38-39 — “Come and see.”

Then, gently guide a conversation around these prompts:

  • When in your life have you most clearly felt Jesus inviting you to “come and see”?
  • In this current season, do you sense yourself following, wandering, or sitting? What helps you notice the difference?
  • How might you take one small step of “coming closer” to Jesus this week?

You might end your time together by sitting quietly for a minute or two, imagining Jesus’ presence beside you both. Close in prayer, asking for the grace to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus—the One who calls, welcomes, and makes his home with us.

_______________________

 

Keith Anderson, D.Min., is a Faculty Associate for Spirituality and Vocation at VantagePoint3 and President Emeritus of Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He is the author of several books, including his most recent: On Holy Ground: Your Story of Identity, Belonging and Sacred Purpose (Wipf & Stock, 2024). His other works include Reading Your Life’s Story (IVP, 2016), A Spirituality of Listening (IVP, 2016), and Spiritual Mentoring (IVP, 1999). In his writing, teaching, and mentoring, Keith seeks to set a table for people looking to enter the “amazing inner sanctuary of the soul” in the most ordinary and extraordinary moments of life.

 

[1] Henri JM Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety, p.11
[2] Nouwen, p. 21
[3] Nouwen, pp 20-21.
[4] Nouwen, p. 22.

 

1 Comment

  1. Finding home: One of my most beloved verses is John 14:23. This is the promise from Jesus that if we love Him and obey His commandments that He and the Father make their home with us! It particularly sustained me in such a beautiful way through a serious and potential death bed experience when I was hospitalized in 2023. I felt no fear as the verse kept repeating itself in my head.

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