What does it look like to follow Jesus?
The first followers of Christ often chose to leave everything behind to follow him—their homes, their parents, their livelihood, and everything else they knew and loved. What kind of power would one man possess to convince strong men with families and jobs to drop everything to follow him.
What must it have been like for a fisherman to leave his livelihood and follow him? They didn’t know where they were going. All they knew was that their hearts yearned to listen to his message of hope. And they would give up anything to be with him.
In Crossing the Waters, Leslie Leyland Fields takes us back to the Sea of Galilee and gives us a fresh glimpse of the life of a fisherman who left everything to follow Jesus?
Fields also takes us through the treacherous waters of her own faith journey and gives us a glimpse of the life of a modern-day fisherman (or fisherwoman). You will cross some dangerous Alaskan seas with her as she sails through her own family’s journey as fishermen. She paints a beautiful picture of her Alaskan adventures as she describes the joys and the terrors of her life as crossing the waters of Alaska.
I love Crossing the Waters because I could relate to the call to follow Christ that Leslie Leyland Fields describes so beautifully.
As I read the stories that Fields shares, I thought of my own family’s faith journey. Leaving our hometown, friends, family, and jobs to follow Christ to a place we had never been was one of the hardest things I’ve every done.
When we left our hometown, I knew that we would never return to live there. And many of our loved ones didn’t understand or agree with our decision. And when the journey became unbearable at times, I must admit that I had second thoughts about our decision. But even though our life seemed impossible, I don’t regret one mile of our faith journey.
If you ever need to internalize what it means to follow Christ, I hope you will read Crossing the Waters by Leslie Leyland Fields.
Have you ever made a decision that meant you had to leave everything and everyone you knew?
