"Do you want to come with me?"

After a long day of packing, cleaning, moving out, AND taking a final; I had finally made it back home to officially begin my summer break. I saw my dad finishing up the lawn work, so as I drove by I rolled down my window to talk to him. He was getting ready to take the freshly mowed grass clippings to the dump and he asked, "Do you want to come with me?"

At that moment a lot of things went through my head. My mom was waiting for me to get home so we could do something together. My dad could really use my help since he's old, out of shape, and his health hasn't been the greatest for awhile. Another one of my thoughts was about Jesus.

There are many occurrences where Jesus asks people to follow Him, and to follow Him they have to leave what they are doing. So that's what I did. I went with my dad. Having a vague idea of what I was getting myself into, but not really knowing for sure.

The blown out tire

It wasn't long before surprise #1 surfaced. We weren't going to our town's dump, but the one 15 minutes away. This was bearable, but it showed even more what I was giving up when I committed to going with him. After a few miles surprise #2. Bang! One of the trailer tires blew out. Finally we make it to the dump... and in comes surprise #3: the wheel bearing for the other wheel is gone. Lovely.

So, as my dad stands in disbelief staring at the trailer wondering what to do, I spend the next 30 minutes raking out an entire trailer full of grass. It had to be at least half a ton of grass. Finally, it's complete and we start on our way home, pulling a trailer over 15 miles with a blown tire and a loose wheel. The entire way back I was to look for the wheel cap that must have fallen off. By the grace of God I saw it on the road and we got it back!

This whole experience involved a lot of learning for me. It showed me more of what dropping everything and following Jesus means. (Oh, my mom and I didn't do anything fun because of all this!) I knew I made the right decision and I'm glad I chose to go with my dad--even if I didn't like the circumstances or everything I had to go through. It was hard at times, and very tiring. I didn't really enjoy it (ok, maybe a little at first). However, there was something rewarding about serving my dad and being able to just spend time with him. And now I realize that's what it's like when we follow Jesus. We may not like it, it may suck, but serving him and having a relationship with him definitely outweighs it!