let's go with Him

 Thomas...oh, Thomas. His life as a follower of Yeshua is so often overshadowed by the title, "Doubting Thomas," due to his insistence on needing to see for himself the proof that his Messiah had risen from the dead.

Yet here he is, shown in a very different light.

Jesus was telling His friends that they were about to head back to Judea, the place where the people had already tried to kill Him at least twice. Thomas tried to be the voice of reason--"Hey, um... the last time You were there, they tried to stone You to death, remember?" Yet despite the reminder, Jesus was choosing to go back.

We remember him for his doubt, but here we have a very clear picture of a different side of Thomas:

"Let’s go so we can die with Him."
(John 11:16)

Too often in the United States, we forget that followers of Christ are not promised a life of ease. In fact, the Jewish Messiah we follow--the One who was despised and rejected by the very people He came to save--promised the exact opposite:

"In this world, you will be plagued with times of trouble,
but you need not fear; I have triumphed over this corrupt world order."
(John 16:33b)

We are called to follow the Messiah. The path ahead is unsure--rocks, pitfalls, detours, dead ends--but He doesn't call us to follow only when we're happy with where He's leading. He calls us to follow when all we can see ahead of us is a road we would rather not take. He calls us to follow when we think the road can only lead to our destruction.

We are walking out into a world that is growing more and more combative toward Biblical truth, and if we stand on and for those truths, we will face hard times. Though persecution is new to those of us in the United States who have been sheltered for 200 years, our brothers and sisters around the world are not strangers to persecution and danger. In fact, many of them have faced it for 2,000 years. So like Thomas, may we choose to follow the Savior--even if the path ahead seems to only lead to death.

Because when you serve the Risen Savior, even death isn't the end of the story.