The Shepherd's Direction

How do you respond when there are changes coming in your life and you just don't know what will happen next? You may have known someone like that. Or, it happened to you. One day things seem smooth and clear; the next day complete unknown seems to overtake you like high tide on the rocks. How you want to turn back the clock and find a way to avoid what you know is coming.

What do you say about a day with strong teaching by Jesus and a Passover meal together? It could be a sweet remembrance of the rescue of God's people. Jesus washed their feet and they together. Jesus seemed so sure of what was going to happen. He knew the direction He was heading and he matter-of-factly told them.

He invited them to pray with Him. He left them to go have a deeper conversation with His Father. He honestly asked His Father for a different direction. It was not to be. He went right on in the direction He was to go. He knew the followers would be devastated by the direction things were going. Actually, they were asleep!

Jesus' accuser came, the soldiers took him away and trumped up changes ensued. The band of followers hardly knew what hit them. Peter tried to stand emphatically saying he wouldn't deny Jesus. A couple of hours later, the cock sounded and all Peter's bravado melted into shame.  Not only had they run from Jesus, the past three years were now in question. They were in shock! What would they do now?

How do you cope with the unknown? Do you try to go it on your own? Do you go back to familiar places or stay away from them because they remind you of what you had? Do you wonder what will happen to you? Do you doubt what you believed about the direction of your life?

In John 17, Jesus prayed for His followers. He went to His Father because at this time there really was no one else who had a clue of the hours ahead. He wasn't so much thinking about the events, He was thinking about His followers. How He loved them as He remembered how He had done all that the Father told Him to do. He asked the Father to keep His followers safe from the evil one. He loved them so much! He prayed that His followers wouldn't avoid trouble, but that they would be of one heart and mind with each other and Him. To Jesus, that mature oneness was the evidence the world needed to believe in God. (John 14:20-23, MSG)

Father, plans are such fickle thinkings. I know people put such trust in knowing everything is laid out and ready to go for every trip to be made. I also know I am sometimes caught off guard because I haven't planned well. Jesus seemed to know all the time what was ahead. I wonder why His followers gave Him such grief sometimes? Hmmm . . . I wonder what I would have done? Now that I have the whole story of Jesus on Earth, it's much easier to be harsh on the followers. But really, I don't know what tomorrow brings for me. I don't know what might happen during today that would change my life forever. I am reminded of Paul's words to Timothy (II Timothy 1:12b) - "I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed to Him . . ." I commit myself to You for the days ahead . . .