He said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” Luke 9:59-60

While driving to work the other day, I was thinking of what life might be like for my wife and I in a few years. We have a daughter away at college and two boys in high school. In roughly 3 years we could find ourselves with much more “free time” to serve God. What will we do when most of our Saturdays aren’t spent on the soccer field? Have you ever had thoughts like this: “When ________ happens, or if only this one thing would change, then I will able to devote much more time to the Lord. Once I get my finances in order, or am able to spend less time at work, then I can serve God the way He wants me to.”

Then the Lord reminded me of the above verse. Jesus called to a man in the crowd and invited the man to follow Him. The man, by saying “first let me go and bury my father”, effectively had thoughts very similar to the ones I was having.

We all live very busy lives. We tend to fill every possible minute of our schedules and then run from one activity to the next. But God never taps us on the shoulder and asks “can you fit me in?” or “do you have time to help me with this?”. He expects us to make Him our highest priority, even if that means being inconvenienced or having to rearrange our priorities.

Another problem with this line of thinking is that “someday” may never come. There is no guarantee I will even make it to the end of today! By waiting for the right/perfect opportunity to serve God, I may miss the blessing of taking a leap of faith and serving him now.

(However, this is not meant to say that those of you already serving in some capacity should feel obligated or guilty to do more and more. This is meant for those of us who have hesitated and are waiting for “the right moment” to come along.)

Is God saying “follow me” to you? How will you respond? The best time to serve God is always now.