Dropping Everything
Spring Series, May 7, 2026
Audio
“Drop what you’re doing and come now!” Have you ever had a call like that? You know instantly that something urgent is happening, perhaps a crisis or emergency, perhaps something amazing that will pass quickly if you don’t hurry.
This is the call that echoed in my ears, and gave me shivers, as a kid whenever I would come across those words in the gospels, “they dropped everything and followed Jesus.” I took that on as some kind of litmus test for what it meant to become a Christian – one had to drop everything, change your whole life, and follow. This took on different iterations as I grew up. As a teenager it sounded like “being sold out for Jesus.” Then, in the language of a well-known mega church in the 80’s and 90’s, being a “fully devoted follower of Jesus.” All these mantras haunted me. They sounded good, even right. I just knew that whatever I was doing in my feebly Christian life could hardly be described in those ways.
I wrote about this in my book, Friendship with Jesus; this call to abandon everything to follow Jesus when we weren’t even sure who Jesus was, nor what “abandoning everything” even meant. There, I spoke about the more usual slowly developing friendship that we see with Jesus and the disciples. But, truth be told, there lingers that initial response of dropping everything. Hard to get around that.
I came across this again this week as I was writing something on Luke 5 which has two stories of disciples dropping everything and following. The first is Simon Peter. He encounters Jesus at work, on his fishing boat, after a long, hard and fruitless night of fishing. Jesus asks him to go out one more time. Simon was ready to pack it in, but he goes. And the fish poured into his boat.
His response? “Go away from me for I am a sinful man.” Simon felt something deep and profound when he sees this miracle; the power, the holiness, something that causes him to fall to the ground and ask Jesus to leave. He is not worthy to be in the presence of one such as this. But Jesus does not leave. He calls. “I will make you fish for people, Simon. And your friends are welcome to come, too.” At this, Luke tells us, they dropped everything and followed.
What would compel them to respond this way? Perhaps they were looking for a change in career and this seemed to fit the bill. Perhaps they saw the opportunity to be the apprentices to an almost-but-not-quite-yet-famous rabbi. Maybe. In that culture that would be an amazing honor. We’ll never know for sure because Luke tells us nothing beyond their rash and immediate decision. They dropped everything and followed.
Just a couple stories later we see the same thing with Levi. Jesus wanders up to his tax collecting booth and simply says, ‘Follow me.” And Levi does! No miracle required. No response of shame or fear, he simply “drops everything and follows.” Now we might think Levi had more reason to act this way. Here was a chance to leave this job that only caused public shame and ridicule. The money was nice but maybe he was realizing the stigma wasn’t worth it anymore. Whatever the reason, he drops it all and follows Jesus.
Dropping everything seems like a drastic move. We’re impressed by it. It speaks of committed resolve and resolute conviction. But who among us can imagine doing such a thing? Maybe you can. Maybe you have. But for most of us, I imagine, this notion of dropping everything and following seems out of reach. We read of it in the disciples and think of them as a separate class of people, somehow – people who knew, if only sub-consciously, that Jesus would transform their lives and the lives of millions through them.
These days, rather than taking on the guilt of not dropping everything, or ignoring the entire idea and leaving it to the super-Christians, I try to remember to listen for Jesus’ invitation to me in this story. As I place myself in that boat, or at that booth, I try to imagine what it would have taken for me to respond this way. Perhaps the look in Jesus’ eyes would have compelled me to “drop everything” and follow him. When a friend calls and asks us to drop everything and come now, we do it. We trust our friend. We know they would not lead us astray. We know they want to include us in their joy, or they need us in their trouble. Either way, we come. We drop everything. Whatever we happen to be doing is less important than our friend in that moment.
I like to think of Luke as a friend like that. As he tells us the story of Jesus he wants to include us in his joy of discovering Jesus. As he tells us of others dropping everything to follow, he stirs in us the desire for something more, Someone more, someone who will speak to the deep loneliness and ache of isolation that haunts us in our quieter moments.
What do you hear with these words, “they dropped everything and followed”? Do you want resolve like that? Do you set it aside for others more spiritual than you? Do you wonder what it would take for you to respond like that?
All this is good for conversation with Jesus.
What comes to mind for you as you watch others respond to Jesus this way?
Thanks for reading!
When Jesus does such a miraculous thing to provide over and above what they need, why wouldn't they follow, just to see what more He will do! So exciting! The idea that Someone would care so much about them, love them like that! He provides so amazingly!