Follow me !

Today we continue our special series The Chosen, this time with the testimony of Matthieu, the tax collector. As always, at the end I will end with a word of encouragement. I leave you with his testimony. 

I must admit that I have always been a bit special. If I had to describe my universe, I could say that I built it around numbers, models and logic. From an early age, my talent for mathematics was obvious to everyone, which is what allowed me to become the tax collector in my region.

On the one hand, I had a comfortable life with a well-paid job. But on the other hand, I was constantly shunned and seen as a traitor working for the invading Romans. According to my Jewish brothers, I was making their life more difficult than it was. They hated me, and even my family turned their backs on me!

God knew I didn't want to hurt anyone. I just wanted to work, keeping accounts with excellence. That's how one day I met Simon Pierre and his brother André. Their debt to the Roman Empire was truly massive, in fact one of the largest I had seen to date.

The Roman lender of Capernaum, named Quintus, had decided to imprison Simon Peter, and he asked me to spy on him beforehand, in order to check if he was plotting a bad trick. So it was while following him that I witnessed the famous miracle with the fish that Jesus performed one morning on the shore.

For the first time in my life, I understood that numbers were no longer, for me, the perfect measure to define the world. I had seen an impossibility happen before my own eyes, something that made no sense to my mind and that numbers could never explain. Just as impossible, moreover, as seeing a paralytic walk who Jesus healed a few days later. I was present when they took him down from the roof, and when Jesus healed him in an instant.

My perception of life, which until then had been so orderly, was crumbling and I no longer knew which direction to follow. It was like this until the day when Jesus passed by my place of work, at my post where I collected taxes. He looked at me and said, “Matthew, son of Alphaeus, follow Me. (adapted from Matthew 9:9, BDS). Unlike the other Jews, He did not reject me, He even invited me to join Him.

I did not hesitate for a second. I left my post, gave the keys to the Roman guard who was escorting me, and took the biggest leap of faith of my life: to follow the One who had accepted me. Now my life has a direction, and a purpose.

My name is Matthew, son of Alphaeus, and I was chosen by Jesus.

My friend, your life may also lack a clear direction and you may feel rejected by those around you. But even when everything seems to be falling apart, you have Someone you can follow. Just as the star guided the wise men from the East, He calls you to follow Him in your daily life and to let yourself be guided. Will you accept the invitation? He is your best friend.

You are a Miracle!

Christian Misch

This article is a repost of the One Miracle Every Day daily encouragement email. If you would like to receive A Miracle Every Day for free by email, click here.