United Church of Christ Daily Devotional 9th June 2025, Monday Message
Follow Me, Already
By Vicki Kemper
Discussion Questions
Please support 5dailydevotional.com so we can continue publishing impactful and uplifting content daily. GIVE HERE
- Read John 21:15-19. Then read the devotional, “Follow Me, Already.”
- Why do you think Jesus dropped a non-sequitur about aging and dependence into a lesson on loving and following?
- Can you relate to Jesus’s description of the loss of independence that happens with aging?
- What does “following” look like for you? How is it different from how you lead your life now?
Jesus said [to Peter], “Feed my sheep. I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” And then he commanded, “Follow me.” – John 21:18-19, abridged (MSG)
I can’t know why Jesus dropped this unsettling non-sequitur into the middle of a post-resurrection lesson about redemption and discipleship; it doesn’t track at all.
But I do know something about conversations that don’t track, and chances are you do, too.
Truth is, there’s never a good time to tell a dear one you’re taking the car keys because it’s no longer safe for them to drive. And there’s no easy way to move a beloved elder from the cherished home where they made a family to a strange place where no one knows their name.
Maybe the point of Jesus’s seemingly tangential remark has to do with the importance of following. No matter how much we’re in charge of now, the day is surely coming—for many of us, anyway—when it will be all we can do to follow the guidance of those who love us. We’ll need to trust that they will not lead us astray.
Given that, it’s never too early to learn how to follow; it’s ever-timely to realize the freedom that following can bring. Liberated from the burdens of leadership, we can focus on loving and feeding, tending and nurturing the precious ones entrusted to our care.
There are enough books about leadership to fill an ocean, but not so many on the art of following. May we write them with our lives.
Prayer
Good shepherd and wise teacher, may I learn to follow your ways of love.
About the AuthorVicki Kemper is the Pastor of First Congregational, UCC, of Amherst, Massachusetts.
