Free to Follow

Excerpted from a column that was first published in the January 2018 issue of Chapel Hill News and Views magazine.

When I turn the pages of a new, large, month-by-month calendar, I marvel at all the freedom I have to choose what lies before me. As of that moment, there are no appointments or tasks written on it. The landscape of the months ahead is like a blank canvas.      

As the days pass, I, like a landscape painter, choose what to add to that wonderful white space. I fill it with appointments and things to do. In the margins, I make notes and scribble phone numbers and other essential information.

Then, when it’s time to turn the page to a new month, I sigh as I see that I’ve already filled in many of the daily spaces. I no longer have pristine pages to marvel at. I no longer am as awed by my freedom to choose. I no longer spend as much time prayerfully considering what God wants me to do with all those days He is giving me as I’d spent between the ending of the previous year and the beginning of the current one.

Instead, I often feel overwhelmed by all the appointments and tasks already awaiting me. And I know that I’ll add more, more, and more as the months move along. With a sigh, I methodically begin to do whatever is on schedule for a particular day.

But this year, I yearn to avoid filling up precious hours with my plans. I long to leave lots of white spaces so that I can be free to do whatever He asks me to do as I talk with Him at the beginning of each day -- and throughout the day, as well.

My desire to remain flexible in order to give His plans priority over mine increased after I read I Come Quietly to Meet You, which is a collection of devotionals written by Amy Carmichael (1867-1951).

Amy’s devotional entitled “Entanglements” helped me realize I am guilty of having too many entanglements, too many worldly things that allure me more than spiritual ones.

After several days of reading and reflecting on Amy’s words, I woke up one morning thinking about the phrase “free to follow.” I eagerly got up and began searching the Scriptures for verses that contained the word follow.

As I read the many references, I realized that the people who were given specific assignments were going about their ordinary tasks when they received the divine call to “follow.”

For example, Peter and Andrew were casting their fishing nets into the water. James and John, along with their father, were mending their nets. Matthew was working at his tax collection booth. (For details, read chapters 4 and 9 in the Gospel of Matthew.)

When Jesus said to them, “Follow Me,” they immediately stopped what they were doing and followed Him, despite their plans for that day.

I pray that you and I will willingly let go of our plans in order to say yes to Him, that we will be free to follow Him wherever and however He leads us.

 © 2018 by Johnnie Ann Gaskill

 

Entanglements

Mama used to “wind off” yarn before she started any crocheting project. She’d fold a piece of paper into a small square and then pull out the end of the yarn from inside the skein and begin wrapping the yarn around the square, turning the square every few seconds. The rotation slowly transformed the square into a ball. By the time all the yarn from the skein had been pulled and twirled in that manner, Mama ended up with a ball about the size of large grapefruit or a small cantaloupe. 

She wound off the yarn in order to avoid having to deal with the inevitable tangles that she’d encounter during the project as the yarn dwindled inside the skein. Untangling the yarn was much easier to do when moving the ball (rather than an  afghan) through the various sizes of loops that were jumbled together. Once all the yarn was on the ball, Mama could crochet efficiently and calmly since the yarn rarely formed anything other than an occasional simple loop that could easily be untangled.

I thought of Mama and her balls of yarn again the morning I re-read the Entanglements chapter in Amy Carmichael’s wonderful devotional book, I Come Quietly to Meet You: An Intimate Journey In God’s Presence. In that chapter, Amy urges Christians to avoid any entanglements that would keep them from being free to serve God. She points out how easy it is to get ensnared by social responsibilities, expectations of others, duties at work and at home, and so forth. The greater our involvements, the less time we have to spend quality time before the Lord—seeking His will, studying His Word, listening to His voice, and learning His ways. Such quiet time spent alone with Him is essential, for that is when we “receive an in-flooding of the Lord’s life…,” she says on page 44.

Thus, you and I must find ways to avoid entanglements that keep us from spending time with Him. And if we’re already ensnared, we’ll do well to find ways out of them, even though that’s awfully hard to do. But we must do it because, as Amy says on p. 46, “We cannot allow ourselves to be entangled and, at the same time, believe that we will have spiritual power."

The beginning of a new year is a wonderful time to decide what we will or will not write in all those beautiful blank spaces on our calendars. We can choose to fill each one to the max, or we can choose to let go of the entanglements that clutter up our calendars and our lives and, thereby, keep us from spending our God-given moments and days on the truly important things: the things that please Him, the things that He commands us to do, the things that will minister to others....

No one serving as a soldier

gets entangled in civilian affairs,

but rather tries to please his commanding officer.

~the apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 2:4, NIV