Stay with Me
“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
John 10: 27
Discernment. It’s one of the most difficult things in the world. Do I go left or do I go right? And when I get there I question everything- Is this the place that God wants me to be?
Last night, before mass started, I was on my knees with lots of questions. Tell me why. Give me insight. Help me breathe. My mind raced on to go through many events in my life that I had questions about. I was looking up at the crucifix when Jesus whispered, “Stay with me.”
God’s unexpected answer was not so unexpected. I have followed Him since Mother’s Day 2013 when He asked me to leave my whole life behind. And He has asked me to do a lot of difficult things since then.
When He called me to himself in 2013, I lost many of my Jewish friends as a Jewish girl following Jesus. When He called me to the Catholic Church in 2015, I lost many Protestant friends. When He called me to leave my job in 2021, I lost my career. But Jesus never asks us to follow Him without a plan. Jesus was asking me, like Peter, “Do you love me?”
I loved Him more than anything or anyone in my life
In every move led by the Holy Spirit, God led me to something greater. And this greatness is not as the world defines it, but in the greatness of knowing Him, it is the greater movement of the soul. With each act of obedience, I found all the promised riches of the Kingdom. These exist in peace, joy, and a spiritual contentedness unmatched by the world.
They were simply not defined by the outcome of circumstances
Becoming a Christian was just the beginning of my new life. The promised rebirth, my lifelong journey in my search for truth. Entering the Catholic Church gave my spiritual wanderings a home, a finality as close to heaven that this side of earth offers. And when Jesus had me right where He wanted me, He again asked me to give up the most important thing in my life, my career. He didn’t tell me why, He simply asked, so I did.
The thing about listening to Jesus’s voice is that you have to be willing to give up everything to really hear it. This is the key to knowing if it is your will or His.
When your prayers are pushing up against a locked door and He offers you another way, take it.
The Shepard’s voice will never lead you astray. He knows you more intimately than you will ever know yourself. He has answers that you simply don’t have. And ultimately, each place that He is leading us brings us closer to our eternal destination with Him.
Thank you Melissa! I have been singing the words “stay with me” all week. I have been thinking of Mary, John and Mary following Jesus in silence. This is great!
The big things, when we agree to them, are powerful wins for God. It's the little things that still keep me carrying around crosses of my own construction. Thank God for reconciliation!
Well done.