The Dance of Discipleship

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When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. - Mark 8:34

I'll never forget the first time someone asked me to disciple them. I'd never been more terrified of anything more in my entire life. Truth is such a request still terrifies me. It's not that I'm unsure of doctrinal concepts or that my prayer life is somewhere between slim and none. What's terrifying is, that knowing all of what God has graced me to know and praying in the manner with which He has ordained for me to pray and the mercy that He has given me to love Him so deeply and profoundly, that I was and am still one messed up individual. Who am I to teach anyone anything? What's more, all of this was worked out in me in the wrestling match of prayer. How does one teach that? This is how you wrestle with God: step one. It's utter foolishness.

 I love the way that Pastor Matt Chandler has described disciple making. He says it's not a book, or a seminary class or a small group. It's life lived with Christ in full obedience and surrender. He calls it "The Dance." It's a lifelong process and it's S-L-O-W. 

Because God is eternal and we are finite, there will always be more of Him to learn and love and that means there's going to be more of us to lay down and surrender. We have a horrible little habit here in the West of only giving God what we want Him to have and that's why we don't see the fullness of the power of God in our lives or in our country. We keep thinking that God is somehow in our debt and dependent upon us and that He owes us, so we have ministers who resort to showmanship theatrics, making great swelling promises that are completely out of context or foreign to Scripture altogether. 

The true disciple understands that he/she deserves nothing but judgement and that makes grace all the sweeter. The life of a disciple of Christ is one of continual repentance and restoration. One of surrender and salvation. What does this look like in a practical manner. I have anger issues. Anger is the sin that so easily besets me. It has the ability to take me out before I get started. That said it's nowhere near what it once was. I'm in constant surrender and God is constantly saving me from the power of that sin, by having me slow down, look to Him and pray for the fruit of long suffering to be made evident. To pray for a heart of mercy and compassion. This is on going. The grace of God is in the ability to see what's wrong and turn to Him and trust Him to make you more like Christ.

Think of a dancer. They make the moves look so easy, but we don't see the strict dietary regimen, the countless hours of rehearsal, the brokenness of their bodies, all the sleepless nights and long hours that they put in to learn one move. Professional dancers will suffer from broken bones than most of us ever will. It's part of package. 

This is also true of the Disciple. We will be broken. He will bind our wounds. He will heal us and we will be stronger and then we will be broken again. The Psalmist and Apostle Paul said it this way, "For your sake we are killed all day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter" (Psalms 44:22 & Romans 8:36) Yet this doesn't separate us from the love of God we have in Christ Jesus it makes us more than conquerors. This dance will cost you but it's worth the price, and over time we'll be moving in the rhythms of Grace with ease even as we stumble forward to learn more. 

In Christ, 

Storm