A long time ago I heard a motivational speaker talk about why we don’t follow our dreams in life. He said we want a nice house, so we end up with a big mortgage. We want a comfortable lifestyle, want our kids in the best schools, so we need a big job to pay the bills. We want people to like us, so we devote ourselves to living up to their expectations. 

We are free to pursue all those things, and yet, when we do, sometimes we’re not really free at all.

The pandemic has led people in all walks of life to rethink their priorities. It’s been called the “The Great Resignation.”

There’s a scene in Matthew 9 that might be a model for us.

A tax collector named Matthew (who wrote the Gospel which bears his name) was sitting in his tax collector’s booth when Jesus came by and said, “Follow me.”

According to Matthew, he just got up and followed, no questions asked.

If it was hard for him to give up the wealth that tax collectors enjoyed, Matthew doesn’t say.

What’s interesting is that Matthew puts this story in the middle of a long string of miracle stories.

It seems that Matthew wants us to know that his call to be a disciple was a miracle too.