There are moments in life when a single invitation changes everything. Sometimes it comes in the form of a job offer, a marriage proposal or an opportunity we never expected. We usually weigh such invitations carefully. What will it cost? What will I have to give up? Where will it lead? Most invitations require us to gather information before we make a decision. But there is another kind of invitation — one that asks us to trust the person extending it before we know where the road will lead.

Matthew 9:9 gives us one of the simplest invitations in all of Scripture: "Follow Me." Matthew was sitting at the tax office when Jesus passed by and said those two words. "And as Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, 'Follow Me.' So he arose and followed Him." There is remarkably little explanation in the account. Jesus did not give Matthew a five-year plan. He did not explain where they were going or what the journey would require. He simply called and Matthew had a choice to make.

That choice was more significant than it might first appear. Matthew had a secure position. As a tax collector, he had a source of income and a measure of financial security. Whatever his reputation among his fellow Jews, his occupation offered him a degree of stability that many people would have been reluctant to surrender. Yet when Jesus said, "Follow Me," Matthew walked away from the tax office and followed Him. He exchanged the security of what he knew for the uncertainty of following the One who had called him.

There is something wonderfully simple about the invitation of Jesus. He does not say, "Understand everything and then follow Me." He does not say, "Figure out where this will lead and then follow Me." He says, "Follow Me." The invitation is not primarily an invitation to a destination. It is an invitation to a Person. Jesus does not promise Matthew that the road will always be easy. He promises, by His very presence, that Matthew will not walk it alone.

That same invitation confronts us. We often want God to reveal the entire plan before we are willing to take the first step. We want to know what obedience will cost, what opportunities we may have to surrender and where our decisions will eventually lead. We want guarantees before we trust. But faith rarely works that way. God gives enough light for the next step and asks us to trust Him with the steps that remain unseen.

Following Jesus also means recognizing that we cannot hold tightly to our own ambitions while claiming to follow Him completely. Matthew could not remain at the tax office and follow Jesus at the same time. His decision required a departure. He had to leave something behind to walk forward with Christ. Sometimes what we must leave behind is obvious sin. Sometimes it is a career ambition, a relationship, a desire for recognition, a carefully constructed plan or simply our determination to remain in control of our own lives.

This does not mean that every follower of Christ must abandon a career, sell everything or walk away from every earthly responsibility. Matthew's story is not a formula for what discipleship must look like in every life. It is a picture of what discipleship always requires at the heart level: Jesus must become more important than whatever we are tempted to make ultimate. His call must carry greater weight than our desire for security, success or control.

Matthew did not know what awaited him when he stood up from that tax office. He knew only who had called him. That was enough. The man who had been accustomed to counting money would spend the rest of his life learning to count the cost of following Christ. The tax collector would become a disciple. The disciple would become an apostle. And the man who once recorded financial transactions would eventually record the words and works of the King.

Perhaps the most challenging part of Matthew's story is also the simplest. Jesus did not ask Matthew to understand everything. He asked him to follow. And that is still the invitation Christ extends to us. "Follow Me." It is an invitation to leave behind whatever competes with Him, surrender our demand for certainty and trust the One who knows the road even when we cannot see it.

We may not know where obedience will take us. We may not know what we will have to surrender along the way. We may not even understand why God is leading us in a particular direction. But we can know the One who has called us. And sometimes faith means stepping away from the security of what we know, placing our ambitions in His hands and taking the next step simply because Jesus has said, "Follow Me."

Matthew's story reminds us that the most important question is not, "Where will following Jesus take me?" The more important question is, "Who is asking me to follow?" When the answer is Jesus, we can trust the One who calls us — even when we cannot see the road ahead.

Dr. Tony Banning is a longtime Southern Baptist minister who serves as pastor of Whitehouse Fork Baptist Church in Baldwin County and as an adjunct professor at Coastal Alabama Community College. He is the author of “Come Aside: An Invitation to Experience the Presence of God,” forthcoming this winter.