Suppose I am traveling Highway 552 toward Highway 15 behind you. As long as both of us are moving in the same direction, it looks like I am following you. Mile after mile, we stay on the same road. Anyone watching might reasonably conclude that I am following wherever you lead. But then we reach Highway 15. You turn left toward West Monroe. I want to turn right toward Farmerville. Now we are going to discover whether I was actually following you or whether we simply happened to be traveling the same road for a while.

That is where many of the most important moments of discipleship happen. His will and my will stand at an intersection. As long as Jesus is going where I already want to go, following Him can seem easy. The real test comes when His way and mine separate.

Somebody hurts me. My feelings say, “Make them pay.” Jesus says, “Forgive.” Somebody insults me. My pride says, “Give it right back.” Jesus teaches me not to return evil for evil. Telling the truth is going to cost me something. Self-interest whispers, “Nobody will ever know.” Jesus calls me to walk in truth. I have an opportunity to advance myself at somebody else’s expense. Ambition says, “Take it.” Jesus teaches me to consider not only my own interests, but also the interests of others.

Those moments are more than hard decisions. They are revealing moments. They reveal whether I am a convenient companion of Jesus or a committed follower. A convenient companion walks with Jesus as long as Jesus is headed in a convenient direction. A committed follower keeps following when Jesus turns down a road that crosses his pride, challenges his desires, confronts his bitterness, costs him something, or requires him to surrender his own way.

Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34). Self-denial matters because sooner or later self wants to go somewhere Jesus is not going.

That is when following becomes real.

It happens in the ordinary intersections of everyday life: at the kitchen table, in the workplace, behind the steering wheel, in the text message you are about to send, in the conversation where somebody’s name comes up, in the decision nobody else will ever know about, and in the moment when resentment says one thing and Jesus says another. We tend to imagine that discipleship is revealed in the great moments of life, but most often it is revealed in small, private decisions when nobody else is watching.

Jesus turns. My will wants to go the other way. And once again He says, “Follow Me.”

The question is not whether I have been traveling near Jesus. The question is what I do when His way and my way separate. That is where the reveal takes place: convenient companion or committed follower?

Sooner or later, you will come to your own intersection. When you do, ask one simple question:

Which way is Jesus going?

Then take that road.