I Am Decided
Recently we had a group of our members at Central church of Christ travel to Zambia on a mission trip. They were gone for about two weeks and we loved looking at the pictures they sent to us and hearing the reports of their work.
After they returned, our Youth and Family minister, who led our group, gave us a report about the work they did there. Some of the best pictures he showed were of the 33 baptisms that took place while they were there. It was so uplifting to see our brothers and sisters in Christ teaching and working with the people in the village of Mumena.
On the Sunday night that the report was given, we also sang a song that is very familiar to us – “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” We sang it in our language and then we sang it in the language of the people in Mumena. We enjoyed learning it in their language, even though we stumbled over some of the words.
After services that night, one of my dearest friends who was part of the mission team, told me a little more about how they sang that song over there. She said that each time they sang it, the people who lived there would sing it in their language and then immediately sing it in English – with one exception. When they sang it in English they changed one word. Instead of saying “I have decided to follow Jesus,” they sang, “I am decided to follow Jesus.”
When she told me this, it touched my heart. It seemed so personal. Using that present tense word “am” seemed to say to me that right here in the present “I am decided.” It isn’t something I did some time ago, but that every second of every day I am decided to follow Jesus!
As a former English teacher, I realize that ‘I am decided’ is not grammatically correct. Even if I didn’t know it, my grammar check keeps reminding me that it is incorrect. But when I think about it spiritually, it is oh so correct.
Sometimes we sing this song when someone is preparing for baptism. They have decided to follow Jesus by being baptized into His body – the church. It is a very appropriate song to sing for baptism. They’ve made a decision and hopefully that decision will be carried out everyday of their life.
My prayer would be that every day of our lives would be started with this thought – I am decided to follow Jesus – today and every day after. I’ll do my best to live the way Jesus wants me to live, doing what He would want me to do, saying what He would want me to say.
Can you say “I am decided to follow Jesus?”
AUTHOR: Donna Faughn
