I had spent nearly a year working weekends as a cub reporter in Kalamazoo when I got the call from a news director, offering me a job working weekdays in Cincinnati.

Bigger market, better pay, better schedule – a big promotion no matter how you looked at it. I was given an opportunity I instantly recognized and could not resist. I turned in my resignation. Immediately.

There are just some opportunities that come our way that we know we need to take. They’re no-brainers, slam-dunks, positive steps in our lives.

Perhaps this is what’s happening in this Sunday’s gospel when the first disciples got the call from Jesus. It was with great haste and no sense of looking back as we heard how they were given an opportunity they instantly recognized and could not resist.  So they dropped everything and followed. Immediately.

Readily answering God’s call should be like that. We should jump at the opportunity to follow Jesus with great joy and excitement.  But that’s not how it works. For a variety of reasons we hesitate and resist, probably not fully understanding the golden opportunity that lies before us.

So our job is not so much to drop everything and follow, but figuring out why that would be an attractive option. What is it God is inviting us into? What are the nets we need to drop? What does the big or small call of God look like in our lives?

Reading

Matthew for Everyone – NT Wright

Matthew – Leon Morris

Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow