The Walk of Discipleship

A linear process is one in which you do one thing. Then you do the next. Then you do the next. There are steps, and you have to do them in order.

For example, you don’t put your shoes on then your socks. You wouldn’t put pants on and then what is worn under them. Many aspects of getting dressed are a linear process.

Growing to be like Jesus generally doesn’t work like that. If you think of our lives as messy houses, you don’t have to clean the kitchen before the living room. You don’t have to clean the bedroom before a dining room. You could certainly develop a reasonable strategy – for example, first floor before the basement. But the process is largely just “get started and keep cleaning.”

Rev. Megan Koch suggests that becoming like Jesus is a non-linear process of this same sort. You are walking through your life, and Jesus is with you. What room are you in today? Jesus says, “Why don’t we do some work in here?” I notice the lights flicker from time to time. Let’s make sure the wiring is good.

We shouldn’t just think of Jesus’ work as clean up. There is home improvement, too. Maybe this room could use some paint. Maybe it could use some better furniture. Maybe we can improve the heating system. God’s work is not only removal. God wants to add immeasurably to our lives as well.

Many of us have a drive to do it on our own. “Let me paint this room, Jesus, while you do something else.” The problem is that we cannot reach every spot in the room. We are not tall enough, and the Holy Spirit is our only ladder. Our hands cannot reach into the wall to replace that wiring. We don’t have enough money to buy that furniture. Jesus does. 

Start where you are. “What’s next, Jesus? What’s the next step?”

A little later in the course, Rev. Koch will mention how that, as a young mother with a young family, she felt like the way the church structured discipleship actually created barriers to her discipleship. By encasing discipleship around certain well-defined times and spaces, discipleship became something she didn’t always have access to. What if the urgency of parenting pulled her from those spaces and times? What happens when we don’t feel as welcome to the group where discipleship is allegedly going on?

The Holy Spirit won’t be confined to a particular space and time, not even in a church. The Spirit meets us in the car while waiting for our kids to get out of school, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop him. The Holy Spirit meets us in the dentist’s office, and no one can uninvite him. 

If you can have that hour-long devotion in the quiet of the morning, by all means, do it. If you can attend that small group or Sunday School class, by all means, do it. Read that book. Don’t make excuses if there are no real excuses.

But Rev. Koch calls us to realize that the bulk of discipleship will not take place in set aside times and places. The real work of discipleship takes place in lived life as Jesus walks and talks with you. To unlock the true power of discipleship, start making this fundamental shift in your thinking today!