Following
During the month of June 2025, the Lord made me really think about myself as a follower and not a leader. Leadership can be a comfort zone at times and just makes us forget about ourselves as followers. We are followers of both Christ and people; and we alternate the hats of leadership and followership every now and then. We often enjoy the comfort of the leadership hat, we sometimes prefer it more than the followership hat. In this blog I would like us to reflect a little on our lives as followers and we are going to use the book of Ruth to point out a few thoughts that came to me as I read this book.
Naomi is the leader in this story, and through the book Ruth is a faithful and loyal follower to her mother in-law. The story is built on a sad background of loss and tragedy, Naomi and her two daughters in-law are widowed after ten “happy” years even though she had no grandchildren in the process. She offers her daughters in-law to return to their families as she is too old and cannot offer them anything worth their following. Naomi is planning to go back to her people in Bethlehem and leave her two lovely daughters in-law back in Moab. At first both Ruth and Orpah decided to go with Naomi but a little later Orpah dropped the idea of following the old mum in-law and she “kissed her mother in-law, but Ruth clung to her”.
Following is a choice – Every day of our lives we are faced with choices to make, and we can choose to follow or not to follow. We all have a mandate to follow our dreams, our leaders, our God, and any such ideas. We follow because we love to, and we want to. We should never follow because we are forced or coerced to do it. Ruth made a choice, and she responded to her mother in-law by these words: “Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following you, for wherever you go, I will go” (Ruth 1:16)
Following is a sacrifice – Following calls for self-denial and carrying our cross. Ruth had everything to lose; her people, her comfort zone, her childhood friends, her local church, her dreams, her language, her home and everything she had built for all her life in the land of Moab. You cannot be a faithful follower if you are not willing to let go. The cost of following most of the time is self-denial. Jesus and leaders God puts in our lives, will not always take us to familiar and comfortable places. The commitment though is as Ruth puts it, “wherever you go I will go”. This is not taking a walk by the seashores or holiday resort. Wherever he goes can mean, in prisons, lonely places, valleys, mountainous, dusty, rough and persecution places.
Following is giving your loyalty – Naomi’s reasons for persuading her daughters in-law was factually convincing, she was old, bitter, and hopeless to even dream of building a family for them. It is easy to follow successful, prosperous and fruitful leaders, ideas and Jesus. The Jesus who heals, delivers and multiplies bread and fish is a lot easier to follow than the powerless, vulnerable, cross carrying Jesus. In Matthew 26: 55 & 58 we are told that “…all the disciples forsook Him and fled…Peter followed him at a distance…”. Following makes a lot of sense when there is a reason and mutual benefitsto the process but when the situation is barren, tough difficult, tense and hopeless followers tend to retreat, withdraw and withhold their commitment. Ruth was still young, energetic, strong, attractive and had all the life ahead of her yet she still chose to be loyal to her aged and hopelessly bitter mother in-law. What a loyal person Ruth was. Loyalty is our faithfulness to the end whether or not we have anything to gain in the relationship.
The reward of faithful followership – In Matthew chapter 1, Ruth is mentioned among the geneology of our Lord Jesus Christ. She became the grandmother to King David and of course the great great-great-grand-mother to the Lord Jesus our saviour. Despite the many challenges, many turns, highs and lows, we face on the road of our journey as we follow Jesus and the leaders He has put in our live, there are many hidden surprises ahead. Everyone who has overcome the obstacles of following their dreams, their leaders, their Lord Jesus has always been paid handsomely.
As we come to the conclusion of this blog, here are a few questions to help us reflect as followers:
- How are you doing as a follower?
- What could be the challenges you are facing in your journey of following?
- Where is your loyalty at right now?
- Have you ever considered there could be mystery behind your followership?
Ps Kennedy Makwenda