THE PRESUMPTION OF DISCIPLESHIP

Isaiah 48:12-50:11; Ephesians 4:17-32; Psalm 69:1-18; Proverbs 24:5-6

“I replied, ‘But my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose. Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.’ And now the Lord speaks—the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him. The Lord has honored me, and my God has given me strength. He says, ‘You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

“With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.  Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”

“O God, you know how foolish I am; my sins cannot be hidden from you. Don’t let those who trust in you be ashamed because of me, O Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Don’t let me cause them to be humiliated, O God of Israel.”

“The wise are mightier than the strong, and those with knowledge grow stronger and stronger.  So don’t go to war without wise guidance; victory depends on having many advisers.”

Sometimes as I write these entries, I feel an intimidating sense of presumption. I have little formal religious training. I don’t know the first word of ancient Greek or Aramaic, let alone Hebrew. Most of what I have learned has come by way of bad experience and faulty decision making. I live the principles I write about mainly when it’s convenient or easy. Little of my life is worthy of imitation; certainly, much of it is actually a contradiction of what I say I believe. Yet, God has given me this mission, this journey, and the responsibility of sharing it with anyone who cares to read it. I wonder why.

That’s how it is with obedience, isn’t it? We don’t get to question orders. We follow or disobey. It’s as simple as that. God’s purposes and choices are not subject to our own second guessing. We either live in faith and respond when He calls, or we say no to the adventure that life in Him could be. I don’t expect there is an answer to why the Lord chooses one person to do that and another to do this, at least, not one we can see with mortal eyes. I don’t even have a clue about how, if at all, He is really going to use this journey of mine to encourage others over the long haul of their own lives. But maybe that’s the point. I am not supposed to know. I am to accept the blessing that my study and journaling is for me, and leave it to the Holy Spirit to take things from there. Oh, and if the end result of all this work is simply that I have grown and come to understand things a little more clearly in my own heart, I am to be content with that. Such is the nature of our Lord’s apparent inscrutability, and what He requires of our faith in Him. We are not to know His end results or purposes. We are simply to proceed as if we are certain that they exist and that they are good.

This can be especially hard on days like today when it seems I have to quite literally chisel the time to read and write out of the granite of an already over-scheduled day. I find myself wondering if this really has to be so hard. Even as the question frames itself in my mind, the answer comes clear. Sometimes, yes. The obedience of discipleship stopped being easy the second Adam and Eve ate the apple. We have no “right” to see the finished product of Christ’s redemptive efforts, whether in the lives of others or our own. We must invest ourselves in the process, nevertheless. If we are going to be true to our calling as disciples, our only option, according to Scripture, is to accept the sovereignty of God, enlist subject to His command and carry out His orders in trust that our Supreme Commander actually does have a greater purpose and vision than we can or need to see.

Christ depends on each of us just because He does (at least, as far as we know). We spend much fruitless time questioning our own worthiness or qualification. Satan makes us timid. We want to know the end game before we embark on the trip. None of our reasons for not following the Spirit’s promptings have anything to do with faith. However, we are called to live by faith. The conclusion is inescapable: if we are to live a life of faith, we must be content with our callings – however illogical they may seem to us – and quit trying to talk ourselves out of, or justify, the opportunities God gives us to make disciples of others. When it comes to discipleship, a certain amount of presumption is probably a good thing.