Recharge

Thinking back some 40 years, I was trying to remember what those initial days were like after coming to Christ. What the emotions were, the enthusiasm, the joy. I can vaguely see it in my minds eye.

When I was reading Luke's account of the specific calling of Peter, James and John there is that word "everything" - pas. A word that means all, all things, everything. In their case the everything amounted to their job, their home, to some degree their family and certainly their future as they knew it.

It is ludicrous to believe they abandoned all of that for a stranger. They had heard the teaching of Christ, perhaps not just there that day, but other places and other times. They were not mere zombies in their response. They were responding to what they understood as the good news of the Kingdom of God. The attending miracle of the fish, simply sealed the deal.

What they had heard and what they had seen was enough for them to become followers of this man Jesus - a man that Peter sensed was more than just an ordinary teacher as he falls at his feet crying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."

Even though I don't recall those initial days in my own life, there are some things that keep triggering my heart and recharging my battery.

• The Word of God still excites me and challenges me
• My heart still fills with emotion when I sing praises to God
• My desire to be more than I am keeps pushing me
• Sin still pricks my heart and causes me remorse
• I desire to share what Christ has done for me

Those first days will never be repeated. Nevertheless, reminding myself of that decision helps me to understand, I decided to something that day; To follow Christ. Then I was not sure what that meant entirely or where it would lead. Today, I am even less sure. But those trigger points keep bringing me back to the reality of it all. They force me to ask myself, "What have I left for the cause of Christ?"

Father thank you for that moment in time when I said "yes" to Christ. May that moment be a way to recharge this moment, that I might be an enthused follower of the Christ.