Posts Tagged: following Jesus
“A Long Slow Series of Clicks”
“Follow me!” (Jesus)
“I believe in you, Jesus.” (Me)
“Good! Now follow me!” (Jesus)
A friend of mine has gotten super-serious about recovering from addiction. He used to feel that he was “terminally unique.” God loved everyone else in the universe, except for him. He felt like a mistake.
And then, my friend wrote something in his email report that I will never forget, something that will haunt and prod and help me to my dying day. “Thankfully by some grace of some power bigger than myself that I don’t understand, something clicked eventually, and it’s been a long slow series of clicks since then.”
Something clicked. Yes! But there are also those long, slow subsequent clicks. Recovery from addiction, learning Spanish (or anything else), the quest for wisdom, dieting—any good thing you can name—involve something clicking. But more importantly, all good things involve a number of slow clicks.
I once read something to the effect that, for too many people, “the Christian faith is often a sudden spasm followed by a long lethargy.” (Or was it “. . . followed by a long paralysis”?) That is not really the Christian faith, but a pale imitation of it. It is sometimes called “easy believe-ism”, but I prefer to call it just plain false.
Jesus did not speak simply of believing in him. He also spoke of following him. It was one of the main ways in which Jesus spoke of the life to which he was calling his disciples, then and now. With only one exception, Jesus’ call to be his disciple/s is in the present tense in Greek. The present tense connotes ongoing, repetitive, life-style actions. A good question for disciples of Christ to ask every day and many times during the day is this: Am I following Jesus right now?
May we all keep clicking along in our followership today!
“Repent, But Don’t Repeat!”
My wife gave me a wonderful phrase today: “Repent, but don’t repeat!”
I forget the precise context. It was quite likely some big or little thing that I had done wrong. That context might well be the source of my memory relapse. Sometimes, I find that I don’t remember because I don’t want to remember.
The Bible and the God it reveals wants people to repent. For example, 2 Peter 3:9 refers to the patience of God while God is waiting for that very thing. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” The Greek verb that is translated “is patient” in this verse is in the present tense. The present tense in Greek often conveys ongoing or continual action. In this case, God is waiting ongoingly for us to repent. This verse is found in a passage that speaks of the ultimate judgment of planet earth and all those on it. Yet it portrays a God who is waiting with bated breath for us to come to our senses.
But notice also that repentance is not simply feeling sorry or saying you’re sorry. Repentance also involves a change in how we live—our way of life. The prophet Ezekiel, for example, is very emphatic. “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (33:11)
Here is a quote that I think sums it up nicely: “When Jesus said “Repent,” He was talking about a change of heart toward sin, the world, and God; an inner change that gives rise to new ways of living that exalt Christ and give evidence of the truth of the gospel.” (https://www.journal-advocate.com/2015/09/24/jesus-says-repent-and-believe/, accessed 09-13-2021)
Repent, but don’t repeat! It isn’t merely a good slogan. It contains at least two crucial aspects of being a follower of Jesus Christ.
“Whom Am I Imitating?”
“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.” (Ephesians 5:1, (New Living Translation)
I am a chameleon. In order to please others, I try to blend in.
No, that’s not true. I am not trying to please others. I am trying to get them to please me.
But it is true that I am a chameleon. I try to fit in so well that I will stand out.
Contradictory? Yes. But unfortunately, it is true.
But I need to be careful as to whom I am imitating and in what ways I am imitating them.
Above all, since I am a Christ-follower—or at least, aspire to be one—I need to imitate Christ, who came to show us what God was like with human skin on. “Following Jesus” doesn’t simply mean hanging out with Him. Following means imitating him.
So, what was Jesus like? Well, he seems to have loved all kinds of people, he modeled humble service, he put God first, he taught wonderful things about the Kingdom of God. He also did miracles, howbeit often with great reluctance.
I don’t think that I have the gift of doing miracles, but who knows? However, those other things that Jesus did are things that I could do, at least, in theory. They are not easy, but they are possible.
One thing that Jesus did that I often refuse to notice is that Jesus noticed. He noticed when his disciples were arguing about who was the greatest. He noticed when his disciples were shooing away parents who were bringing their little ones to Jesus. (Jesus didn’t like that, even a little!) Jesus noticed a poor widow who had put a small coin in the offering box. (Jesus was very impressed with that!) Jesus noticed when his disciples needed their stinky feet washed.
Jesus noticed? He noticed that we were all lost and didn’t even have the sense to ask for directions. He noticed that we had all messed up our own lives and the lives of others. His ministry of noticing eventually took him to the cross.
Where is my imitative noticing taking me, I wonder?
“Learning to Heel”
“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love” (2 John 6).
I am having a terribly difficult time learning to heel! I should explain.
My frustration with our little dog Laylah has caused me to examine myself. When we go for walks, as we often do these days, Laylah has a tendency to get out in front of me, even when I keep her on a short leash. This would not be a problem, except for the fact that Ms. Laylah has inherited a terrible weakness from her male adopted pet parent: She has attention deficit disorder. This malady is also known as, “Squirrel! Syndrome.” If my furry little girl sees a squirrel or a bird, or another dog, or blowing leaf or piece of paper, she is off to the races. And she is very fast.
If she cuts to the right side, she threatens to break her own neck, or at least give herself a sore neck. If she cuts to the left side, across my direction of locomotion, she threatens to break my neck, by causing me to have a bad fall. So, teaching her to heel is kind of important, for both her sake and mine.
So, this morning I asked myself why it is so difficult for her to learn to heel. She’s a smart little thing, like my wife, her adopted mamma. The problem is that Laylah is only smart when she decides to be. “Why can’t you learn this?” I said to Laylah, rather reproachfully this morning. She looked at me with fearful humility, and, for two or three seconds, she stayed back. However, before I could say, “Thanks for letting me lead,” she wasn’t—letting me lead, that is.
So, I tried to think like a canine. I don’t know if I succeeded, or that God spoke though me to Laylah. But I do know that God spoke through Laylah to me.
For one thing, Laylah just gets distracted. I’m not so sure that ADD is the proper name for the disorder. Perhaps it should be called Attention Distraction Disorder. ADD people and dogs don’t have a deficit of attention. We just find ourselves distracted from where we need to direct our attention. And let’s face it. Focusing on obedience isn’t the easiest thing to do, no matter what species we are.
Maybe Laylah’s priorities get messed up. The immediate gratification of chasing a squirrel or a blowing leaf seems so much more important than whatever this hulking giant on the end of her leash wants her to do. Of course, dogs do not have a corner on the immediate gratification market.
But the basic problem is that Laylah wants to be the alpha dog. She may only weigh 7 ½ pounds, but that doesn’t keep her from wanting to be the big dog.
Now, I don’t think that I need to spend a lot of time unpacking these lessons for you and me. We speak of following God or Jesus. That is certainly an appropriate way of speaking. However, sometimes we get distracted, and forget who is on the other end of the leash.
And then there’s the problem of immediate gratification. In fact, I think it is so common that we should turn this expression into a blend word—“immediafication”!
However, the most serious problem is our desire to be the ALPHA DOG. The all caps are not an accident. This is a problem because, no matter what fine people we may be, we all make lousy gods. When we don’t follow God/Jesus, when we try to run ahead, we get ourselves into a mess in a hurry. Unfortunately (or is it so unfortunate, really?), God moves very slowly, and we are very quick. In fact, we are entirely too quick.
Learning to heel is not easy, but it is tremendously important. Perhaps I owe Laylah an apology. I’m sure that I need to ask God to forgive me. And no doubt I need to set a better example for my dog and for my two-legged friends as well.
“Lacking What I Have”
I bet I know what you’re thinking, if you paid attention to the title of this post. I bet you think it was a misprint. “Your title for this post is strange, Down-to-Earth-Believer! Don’t you mean to say, ‘Lacking What I Don’t Have’? I mean, if you have it (whatever “it” is), then you don’t lack it. And if you lack it, you obviously don’t have it. Explain yourself and your title!”
Okay, I will explain myself. But it gets ugly in a hurry.
My meditation today is based on the “3-Minute Retreat” from Loyola Publishing. You can access the meditation for free at https://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/what-do-you-lack-start-retreat/. Here is the entire biblical story upon which the retreat is based:
“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’ And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’ And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.’”
(Mark 10:17–31 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
Now, whenever I encounter this story, I encounter myself. And I don’t like to encounter myself. No, I don’t. This story asks me a question that I don’t like, because I already know the answer. The question is this: What do I have that is really a liability and a lack? And I like the answer even less than I like the question.
As part of today’s “3-Minute Retreat,” the retreat master/writer made the following comments:
“Initially in this story, the rich young man affirms his devotion to following the Ten Commandments. Jesus shows his love for the rich young man by challenging him to not just follow the Commandments but to become a disciple, allowing his love of God to be more important than anything in the world. We, too, are meant to keep the Ten Commandments. We are also called to conversion, turning our whole lives over to God by following the teachings of Jesus Christ and by serving others.”
Notice the equation of “conversion” with “turning our whole lives over to God.” This begins with an initial decision and prayer to God, but this “conversion,” this “turning our whole lives over to God” is an ongoing process. I believe that you have to begin somewhere, but if you stay where you begin, you haven’t really begun. You’re just stuck.
Notice that, in the story about the rich young ruler, what he lacked was not what he did not have. No! It was what he did have that revealed his lack. A good question for me to ask when I feel that I lack something, is this: “What do I have that is causing my lack?” And at that point, with God’s help, I need to give that up. I need to give it up to God, and give it to others, whenever possible.
I heard or read somewhere a story about an unexpected windfall that needed to be given up. I’ve probably scrambled some of the details, but here it is, as best I can remember it:
It was during the Great Depression (the twentieth century one, not the current one that we may be going into). A poor couple with a young daughter or two received an unexpected check in the mail. It wasn’t all that big, but it certainly seemed so to them. The daughter could hear her parents arguing about how to spend the money. She was worried. She had never heard her parents argue like this before. Then she heard two things. First, she heard silence. And then, there was hearty laughter. She was sent out to buy a lot of ice cream. When she returned, all her neighbors were crowded into her parents’ small house, and every bowl her mom had was sitting out. They spent the entire check on ice cream for the community. And her mom and dad were happy again.
I wonder what windfall you and I have that we could turn into an ice cream social? Let’s not let what we have be our lack!
“Repentance and Conforming to the Gospel”
Today’s “3-Minute Retreat” from Loyola Press (which you can access at https://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/the-consequences-of-not-repenting-start-retreat) was based on Luke 13:5:
“But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”
The retreat master writes, “To perish, to be lost forever, is not a pleasant thought on which to dwell. It is better to repent, to be contrite, so that you can come to a place of starting anew. In the deepest part of ourselves we know there is no other way to change. To repent is much more than saying “I’m sorry.” It is the profound understanding that we must conform our lives to the Gospel, or be lost forever.”
To say “I’m sorry” is very difficult for me. It probably is for virtually everyone.
But to conform to the Gospel of Jesus Christ—that is on border between excruciatingly difficult and absolutely impossible. Anyone who thinks it is easy to follow Jesus has probably never read Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Or, at least, they have not taken those documents seriously.
There is a good reason for the subtitle of this website: “Musings of a Deeply Flawed Christ-Follower.” Sometimes, the flaws seem so much more real than the part about following Christ.
One of my 12-step readings from Hazelden made a very similar point about actually living a transforming life. Here it is:
“Let no one be deluded that a knowledge of the path can substitute for putting one foot in front of the other.
—M. C. Richards
Recovering men know this path is not always easy. We usually talk about the benefits of recovery and the many promises of the program. Today, in our fellowship, we talk of the challenges we must face in order to recover. Honesty may be the greatest challenge. It is frightening to be honest with ourselves about things we have never really admitted or faced before.
Sometimes we have new and confusing feelings and think something must be wrong with us. But we may be just experiencing the logical outcome of our earlier commitment to be honest. No one recovers by thinking about it. We must actively take each Step and meet the challenges presented. We are not alone with our difficulties. We are part of a large movement of men committed to recovery, and this quiet moment is one way in which we are simply putting one foot in front of the other.
Today, I pray for the courage to remain faithful when the fears and pains of my transformation are overwhelming.” (From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men ©1986, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation.)
Yes!
Conforming myself to the Gospel, being transformed by putting one foot in front of the other in the direction of a sane, sober, loving life—these are not easy. But then, neither is staying the way I am. And no one has to do any of this alone or all at once. I have good companions who both encourage and hold me accountable. And I have the strength to take this one step in this one moment.
“All In and All Out”
I was baptized yesterday.
Yes, I know: It seems quite strange, doesn’t it? I am an old guy who was a pastor for 29 years. I have been a follower of Christ (at least part-time) for many decades. I have taught and still teach at a Christian university. Why on earth would I be baptized?
Actually, this is my third baptism. The first was when I was nine years old. Did I understand everything about the Christian faith? No. But I did understand that I was a sinner, and Christ was the Savior.
I was also baptized when I was twenty-four. I had been pastoring a church for a year-and-a-half, and realized—while preparing a sermon—that I might know a bit about the Bible, but I didn’t really know Christ. I was baptized by my father-in-law in the baptistry of the church I was serving as pastor.
For a long time now, I have been having a desire to be baptized again, to renew my vows to Christ and to the Church. Today I decided to quit desiring, and follow through.
No, I still do not understand everything about Christ. Sometimes I wonder if I even understand much.
But this I do know: Without Jesus Christ in my life, I wouldn’t have one—a life that is.
Some people tend to coast when they get older. I have decided to take the opposite approach. I am too old now to coast. Some people get cautious when they get older. I have decided that I am too old not to take some risks.
I am not about
JESUS’ GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
“I continually give them eternal life, and they will never perish.” (John 10:28, my translation from the Greek.)
First, a technical point: The Greek present tense usually suggests some sort of continuous or ongoing reality.
The present tense of the word “give” is used in John 10:23. This likely suggests that Jesus was referring to an ongoing, continuous giving of eternal life to his followers.
Eternal life is not simply something that was given in the past, or reserved for the future. No! Eternal life is something that is granted to us in each passing moment.
It’s a good thing! If I were given all my eternal life at once, I would devour it all and ask for more. It would be like the peanut butter sandwich cookies that my sweetheart got me the other day. They are already gone.
How freeing and relaxing it is to think of Jesus giving me eternal life continually. My regular, everyday life is energized by the One I love and follow. Many things may happen today that I can’t handle, but nothing will happen to me today that Jesus’ life in me can’t face.
This gives me great hope. Of course, someday my mortal body will cease to function. That is why it is called a mortal body, for crying out loud! I am exceedingly temporary.
Of course, there is a catch. There is always a catch, isn’t there. However, Jesus does not bury the proviso in a footnote in fine print. In the verse right before verse 28 (which, strangely enough, is verse 27) Jesus says the following: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” If we are following God as best we can at any given moment, we can rest in the assurance that we are never far from his kingdom. Eternal life becomes a reality for us the moment we obey.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
- “God is in the Details” October 11, 2024“The devil is in the details.” (A general saying, often quoted by lawyers, reporters, and negotiators.) “God is in the details.” (Me, almost certainly not original.) “Luke 12:7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Jesus) God does not micromanage, but God […]
- “Grandma’s Pump” October 8, 2024When I was a little critter, I would stay at my grandma’s house for a night or two sometimes. I liked this for a lot for many reasons. One thing I liked about staying with her was that Grandma’s house was much more technologically advanced than ours was. For one thing, she had indoor water—sort […]
- “Wearing the #14 Wrong-Side-Out” October 5, 2024Pete Rose, #14, is dead. Many of the old guys with whom I play softball watched him play and appreciated him greatly. I do as well. He was one of the greatest players who ever played the game. Yes, he admitted (eventually) to betting on baseball. But many of us still regard him as one […]
- “Passing Along the Love (and a Link)” October 4, 2024Several years ago, a friend of mine put me onto a daily meditation by Richard Rohr and friends. I don’t read them all the time, but I probably should. They are good! I thought that today’s writing was especially good, and I also figured that this would be a good way to post something. I […]
- “Witnessing Versus Being Witnesses” September 19, 2024“Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after […]
- “A Bathroom Prayer for Hurting Hands” September 11, 2024A week ago Sunday, my hands were hurting so badly at church that I went to the bathroom to run hot water over my hands. Arthritis perhaps, or carpal tunnel, or general orneriness—I don’t know why my hands hurt, but they do. They have for years. So, while I was running hot water over my […]
- “Waiting and Seeking” September 10, 2024“Lam. 3:19 ¶ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! Lam. 3:20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Lam. 3:22 ¶ The steadfast love of the LORD […]
Recent Comments