Following Forrest?

Do you remember the great movie, "Forrest Gump," starring Tom Hanks?  I was thinking about this movie the other day and had some insights that I wanted to share.

If you remember the story, Forrest is distraught at the death of his mother, and starts running through his home town of Greenbough, Alabama.  Then he runs through the county and then he just keeps running until he leaves the state and goes west all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  Then, he turns around and starts back until he hits the Atlantic Ocean.  Then the cycle starts again.  As Forrest is running, he attracts a lot of attention and many, many people start imitating him and following him as he runs aimlessly across the country.

Everyone wants someone to follow, don't they?  Even as adults, we all look for leadership in our lives -- direction, guidance, acceptance.  The big question, then, is "who do we follow?"  The people following Forrest in the movie were certain that he was running with a purpose, that he was running for a reason, that would give their life meaning.  But in the end, Forrest stops running, tells them he's tired and that he's going back to Greenbough, Alabama.  The followers stand in the middle of a desert road, looking at Forrest and yelling, "That's it?  That's it?" 

That's the problem with just blindly following someone -- you never know where they will lead.  One of my pet peeves, in a similar vein, is when someone tells me, "I just have faith."  Faith is good, IF you have faith in the right thing.  Faith in and of itself is worthless unless the object you are placing faith in has worth.  The same is true in regards to following someone.  Followers need to know who they are following and why. 

Putting our faith in earthly persons/things or following earthly leaders will always lead to disappointment.  People are human, and they will fail.  Everything on earth will eventually fade away and disappear.  But yet, we are still left with this desire in our hearts to follow someone, to put faith in something greater than ourself.  What, or who, is the answer?

The answer, of course, is Jesus.  Jesus is the one person that we can follow without worrying if He will let us down or leave us alone on a road in the middle of a desert.  Jesus will never leave us or forsake us.  His mercies are new everyday, and if we follow Him and place our faith in Him, then we will never be left wanting.

I would encourage you to look at your life and see what you are following today.  Is it Jesus, or is it something or someone else?  What do you put your faith in -- the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, money, career, material things?