They Know His Voice

Sometimes, in the rare moments I allow myself to think of such things, I wonder, when I step into the next life in its glowing nakedness, when all that isn't true but seemed to be crumbles into dust, when suddenly in one moment I'm overwhelmed by the brilliance of Jesus, what will be the truth about the life I lived here on earth.

Which is to ask, do I really follow Jesus? At all? A little? A lot?

I confess that I seriously doubt my ability to answer that question. Of course I want to land in the affirmative, can come up with a few potential proofs, and am fairly certain my fellow believers would point to this or that in response.

And yet......

Haven't you ever wondered if when you get to heaven you'll be shown this entirely different life you could have lived? If only?

Most of the time when I ask myself if I truly follow Jesus, I think no, not really. I don't hear him say go here, walk this way. I've pretty much got my course set, my days planned. But then again, it's not that I DON'T follow him. How's that for avoiding the question, for lowering the bar of discipleship? As you can see, I get lost in a quagmire of condemnation on one side, justification on the other.

Yesterday, however, after reading in John where Jesus talks about sheep knowing the voice of their shepherd, refusing to listen to the voice of a stranger, this thought came to me:

What if the life I'm living is just what he wanted all along? He is the Shepherd. He's called me and I heard because I'm one of His. I go in and out and find pasture. I listen for His voice because I belong to Him, and I don't listen to the voice of the stranger because I don't know him.

It's as simple and pure and beautiful as that.