by John Shirk

I wasn’t the first person to learn that you can’t follow Jesus and follow the plan. In the gospels Jesus told twelve me to “Follow me.” I’m sure they had plans as well. Some were successful fishermen. They probably planned to continue plying their trade on the Sea of Galilee and making a comfortable living for their families.

Whatever their plans, they left them behind to follow a homeless man with nowhere to lay His head.

And where did He lead them? My favorite story about following Jesus was the time He led them to set out in a boat as a storm was about to hit. These fishermen were expert meteorologists. They had to be, it was a dangerous profession. They could see in the clouds that a storm was brewing. I’m sure none of their plans involved rowing into the storm. But they followed Jesus and that’s where He led. They followed in spite of their fear, and He calmed the storm with a word.

But that was just the beginning. When they arrived on the other side of the lake, he led them ashore between a pig farm and a cemetery. Two unclean places no self-respecting Jew would have ever gone. Why would their Rabbi lead them there?

They soon found out. Jesus had a divine appointment with a man who was demon possessed. He had escaped confinement, breaking his chains with supernatural strength. No one could subdue him as he wandered, naked through the tombs, screaming and cutting himself with rocks. Imagine how Jesus’ followers must have felt when they got out of the boat to the deranged screams of a naked, bloody, strongman.

But Jesus spoke and calmed the man like He had calmed the storm. The demons were cast into the pigs on the hillside next to the cemetery. Soon an angry herd of swine was rushing towards the lake where Jesus and His followers had just gotten out of their boat.

In one day, they followed Jesus into a storm, into an encounter with a deranged and dangerous man, only to find themselves into the presence of a suicidal, out of control, herd of pigs.

It makes my life on the west side of Chicago seem tame in comparison.

Following Jesus isn’t for the faint of heart. But what an adventure, seeing Jesus calm a storm in the sky above, and the storm in the troubled life of the man living in the tombs.

And learning to trust him to calm the storms in my life as well.