As I think about what discipleship is and what it is not, I find myself continually seeing how simple it really is. It’s basically just following the two greatest commandments…love God and love one another. If all the people in the world simply did those two things what would life look like? Of course, while the commands are simple, actually doing them is difficult. People are human and come with all kinds of baggage. It is hard to love people. People who harm you, annoy you, are annoyed by you, disappoint you, disrespect you, lie to you, and the list goes on. I find it easy to love people until they do that one thing that makes them unlovable. But we are called to love as God loves. “Looking beyond their faults and pouring love out on their needs.” (Brian McLaren) That’s sacrificial love and humans don’t like to sacrifice their rights and feeling, at least I don’t. We live in a society that doesn’t like to sacrifice, which makes it easy to follow the world rather than Jesus. Of course, it’s easier to follow the world in all things. That’s the problem. The world appeals to our flesh and the flesh doesn’t like to sacrifice. It wants to be pampered and feel good all the time. Everybody is here to make me happy, successful and feeling good!
The cost of discipleship is high. It is picking up my cross and following Jesus. My cross is where my flesh and my spirit intersect and I have to make a choice. Making the choice to follow Jesus is the choice of life and love and secures his presence with you.
It is a strange phenomenon. People who annoy me or I really don’t like will come up to me and at that moment in time I feel this deep love and concern for them. When they are not in my presence I can easily find all their faults and find all the logical reasons not to like them. Standing next to them I lose that ability and see them as human beings just trying to live out their lives. This must be the agape love manifesting itself at that moment. “Where two or three are gathered, I am in their midst.” (Matt 18:20) When I am face to face with someone, Jesus arrives and transforms what I feel for that person.
Eventually I would like to feel that all the time, especially in the annoying times or times of dislike moments. I feel more and more like all people are really just doing the best they can at dealing with life. That includes me. We are all human beings in all our imperfections. It really is easier when I just love people and not care about all the other stuff. If my heart is cloistered with God, then the only thing that can come out is love. That’s how Jesus was upon this earth. He knew people were imperfect but he simply loved them and they responded to that love. The power of love will remove the dross and align the imperfections. Jesus, reduce me to love!
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