I Will Follow Him

Lessons in love

I will follow him
Follow him wherever he may go
And near him I always will be
For nothing can keep me away
He is my destiny

I will follow him
Ever since he touched my heart I knew
There isn’t an ocean too deep
A mountain so high it can keep
Keep me away
Away from his love

I first heard this ‘pop song’ in the sixties. I remembered it thirty years later in the film ‘Sister Act’.

Sister Act tells the far-fetched but entertaining story of Delores Van Cartier, the worldly-wise nightclub singer who leads a convent choir. They sing this song to the pope, giving it extra meaning by making it a gospel song…

Deep Oceans and High Mountains: This is a familiar metaphor in love songs, describing love that’s so big that it can’t be measured, and so all-pervading that it can’t be escaped from.

And as a gospel song these are well-used pictures to describe God’s love.

I will follow him: Love directs us to be less self-centred. Instead of going where I want to, doing what I want to, living as I want to I look to someone else. The needs, opinions and desires of another become priority.

And Jesus talked about the following of discipleship that involves love for God and our neighbour…

Heart touching: Emotional all-consuming love that touches the heart can also break it and mend it. Love at its deepest is life-changing in the home or in the church. This is the experience of falling in love and then the on-going transformation of living in love…

Lessons in Love: In ‘Sister Act’ the nun’s understanding of love was spiritual but detached from the world. Delores’ understanding was rooted in the tangible world of nightclubs…

The nuns and Delores had something to teach each other as they learnt lessons in life and love together – each enriching and deepening the understanding and experience of the other.