The Cost of Discipleship

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of my heroes, he didn't just write about living a sacrificial life, he did it. He didn't talk about following Jesus, he did it. He didn't compromise what he though, he stood up and defended truth (though it was costly), and yet he still was a professor, father and church leader.

His book "the cost of discipleship" is what I nicked this blog title from.

However, he wasn't the first person to talk about the cost of discipleship.

 ¹⁸ When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” ²⁰ Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” ²¹ Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
 ²² But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

[Matthew 8:19-22]

Here two people want to follow Jesus and he warns them of the cost. The price of finding the kingdom of heaven.

It may seam at this point so costly that there could be no reason to follow the path of discipleship but there is still more.

 ⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.   ⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. ⁴⁶ When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

[Matthew 13: 44-45]

Discipleship involves following Jesus, following his steps and his path really did cost him everything. However, in return we gain everything. To buy the field the man had to first sell everything, to buy the greatest pearl he had to first sell all the lesser pearls.

Discipleship costs.

Teaching observation and life 2

I have already mentioned about how useful it can be to observe other teachers [Christians] as a CELTA teacher [follower of Christ] but the reverse is also true.

Being observed is very useful in our teaching and Christian life.

As a teacher it can be hard to see our faults from within our own perspective. After all during a lesson you can focus on one group and not another, we can be focusing on one problem and not notice another or other factors. When you add in lack of experience there are many reasons why having a set of wiser, more experienced eyes [or just a fellow teacher] over your shoulder can really help.

Peter also felt the benefit of having some peer observation. When a group of Jewish followers can to see him he reverted to the old covenant despite clearly deciding that he was no longer bound by it. Paul was on hand and gave him a professional reminder of his mistake and set him on his way.

Richard Foster, in his book celebration of discipline, talks about the discipline of confession and how this form of observation is a spiritual discipline and one that brings us closer to each other and to God.

It also isn’t just about being observed but having someone tell you what these problems are and encourage you to sort them out.

Who is observing your life? Who are you having professional feedback session with?

Teaching Observations and Life

During my CELTA [training to become an English as a foreignlanguage teacher] one of the very first things we did was to take part in a sample lesson where we could see the methodology we would eventually teach with being done on us. The next thing was to watch a lesson on some students fromour course supervisor.

These initial observations were very useful as sometimes words can only go some far and it can be a lot simpler to just show how to do something than explain it.

I think the apostle Paul understood this, he didn’t just preach [Although he certainly did that! Remember the in Athens or what about when he bored a boy to sleep who then fell to his death after he had beenpreaching for “some time”] but he also demonstrated with his actions.

In fact he even goes as to say that he shared his entire life with the church in Thessalonica. And that they became imitators of him whilst he was there.

Now whilst I certainly haven’t observed as many teachers since finishing my CELTA I still continue to do this.

These observations are still good.

Sometimes there is a revelation about teaching that I hadn’t thought of until I saw another teacher do it.

In the same way as Christian we should continue to observe the lives of other Christians. We should continue to be challenged by their example, and become imitators of them and ultimately God.

So who are you imitating? 

Hospitality and Zacchaeus

I've been thinking about the story of Zacchaeus and what it tells us about hospitality.

Recently I have been thinking quite a bit about hospitality partially as part of a long term realisation of how important it is as part of othopraxy and also after reading some posts on the compatability of Hospitality and Entertainment [or the lack there of].

So when I read the story of Zacchaeus for the 3 time in a week and a half or so (for various reasons) I had a strange realisation. Usually we think about the importance of the host in initiating hospitality, in inviting others in. Yet here we see Jesus, the guest, invite himself to someones house and disciples him into hospitality.

It's an interesting point that sometimes being Hospitable isn't just about opening your house for other people, but also making the sacrifice of your precious time and in some cases reputation to go to someone elses house.

Question: Why don't we help people?

If you remember last week I uploaded a little story/monologue called I saw jes...someone. It was based around the sort of ideas and excuses that I sometimes have used to not help someone out who I saw in need. One of the things that really struck me, after I actually finished writing it, was how many excuses I didn't include that I also use.

The one that struck me most was "I'm too busy to help them." It's seams so strange and so against the grain of the bible where we regularly see people dropping everything to help others. I would love to attach this to culture or something but in reality it's not. Back in biblical times people worked pretty much all day everyday [bar Sunday of course] and yet the bible doesn't seam to view this as being too busy to help.

What this really says about my motives and priorities is that going off to do my job, to get home, to meet friends Is more important to me than helping someone. There maybe good reason for this, after all what if one of my friends was about to commit suicide, it wouldn't be surprising for me to priorities them over a strange who I don't know what their situation was.

However, as you may be surprised to hear my friends don't actually try to commit suicide everyday.

Another thing I can say about work is that sometimes I have to get to work quickly for my next lesson which really does start very soon and so end up passing the same homeless people again and again. I know these people will be there and yet I am always rushing past. If I simply woke up and set of 10 minutes earlier then I would have at least 10 minutes to spend with this person! What could I do with that time!

So I want to open it to you, What good and what bad reason do we think of for why we don't help other people? [and what do these "reason" tell us about our priorities and motiviations in life.]

AND

 most importantly how can we overcome these problems?

Fasting: a few thoughts on my faults

I have often wondered about the spiritual discipline of fasting, and when I say wondered I usually mean realised I should do it more and then quickly made up reasons why I shouldn't or other things to think about so that I don't have to go without food or something else.

Every now and again someone comes up to me and tells me what a huge difference they have seen in their life since they have fasted, or I hear a sermon/ read an article about it and I the train of thinking starts. “Of course I should fast, I know that it something I should do, I know it goes along with prayer and I believe that it will be a good thing to do. BUT...” the train of thinking starts “I'm still underweight, I should wait till I'm gaining weight again/I can't do it on Monday, I need to fast in secret and on Monday everyone will know I'm fasting...so I should...oh I’ll work out when to fast later [later never comes]./ oh no! I've eaten a tiny amount of food! That's ruined today’s fast. I'll just have to cancel today’s and start again next week (repeat ad nausium until I have forgotten that it's even a day of fasting)/

I think one of the main problems for me with fasting is that it is so contrary to what culture tells me about food and what I want to believe about food. See although I am usually under what is a healthy weight for my height, I LOVE food. I enjoy all different types of food and tastes and I think the saying “the way to a man's heart is through his stomach” was written about me. So the idea of choosing not to eat really doesn't sit well with me. Having said this I know that we actually don't need 3 meals a day, and that you can easily go for a day without eating and feel no side effects what-so-ever [apart from some bad breath].

I sometimes use the excuses that I have a bad memory and keep forgetting that I am fasting...and it can kind of work for the morning when I have just woken up and slip into auto-eat mode but certainly not during the day. At this point when I Feel hungry I know it is because I haven't eaten and I know this is because I am fasting. Yet despite this I still find myself accidentally breaking my fasts.

If you had read my post about date night then maybe you can see the similarities here. Maybe I’ve been thinking too much about how I feel and about how I am tired/hungry and want some quick relief rather than about spending time thinking/concentrating on God. Maybe [probably] I have become to infected with worldly thinking that OF COURSE I should have three meals a day. Most probably I know that God will still be there if I choose not to carry out on what I decided upon. Really it is a case of taking grace for granted and not appreciating how good it is to spend time with God. When ever I do fast I feel the difference and I am so glad that I did, and yet next week the same old excuses rear their heads out of the ground.

I don't know if you feel the same but it does seam that the modern church really doesn't fast at the moment. Maybe this is my own blind experience but I hear so few sermons on fasting that It really surprises me. Admittedly Jesus and Paul talk about other things more but still how often do you hear fasting mentioned at church.

For further reading on reasons to fast etc see the links bellow. [most nicked from this post]

http://www.saintpauls.co.uk/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=18499

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/26_Fasting/

http://www.ihop.org/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=1000010083

http://www.ihop.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=1000046150

Date Night

It's Friday night, date night. Out of every night during the week this is the one that you and your wife have set aside to have a special evening each week. Sure all the time with your wife is special but sometimes, when you come back late from work, cook the meal, take out the rubbish, clean the dishes, do any work for work tomorrow and whatever else you need to do that evening, it can feel quiet stressful. But not this night, oh no, this night you have set agreed to set aside to be with each other and just enjoy one another’s company in whatever way you choose that week.

As you tred the well worth path back home you start to think back to when you agreed to start date night, how other people had told you that setting some time aside to spend with each other was important, how it had benefited their relationships and how it had helped them work through some very hard times, even when they were going through rough patches. At first you had found date night easy, even when you had a lot of work on or you were tired, just the mere thought of date night just managed to lift your spirit.

Recently things had been different though, years had passed since the early days and thinking back all the different date nights seamed to merge into one, Work was getting hard, the kids demanded so much time and it was always a struggle to find a babysitter. Of course you still love your wife, more than ever, it's just. Sometimes you wonder what else you will find out about your wife on this night, or what difference having a meal in a restaurant would be to having a meal at home. Surely you'd both be more relaxed if you didn't have to ring round to find a babysitter and both got to do all the tasks you needed to do. Maybe just this once...we should cancel date night, after all we've done it in the past.

You pull out your phone to ring your wife and start to punch in the number on the keypad when a text arrives. As you open it up the screen and peeking on the screen you see her name. What could it be? Is there a problem with the kids? Is she okay?

“Hi honey. Can't wait to see you tonight, I know how hard these date nights can be but I can't wait to spend time with you. X”

The sudden realisation strikes you in the stomach like the sucker punch you received in primary school from the bully. She had been looking forward to it all day...and there I was going to cancel on her because of how I felt...I didn't even think about how she might have been feeling...What about all the other times we cancelled date night?

She has just finished cooking the kids meal and hears the door bell ring. Why is someone calling at this time of night? Perhaps it's one of those annoying religious groups again. She goes to the door and with curiosity opens the door. There you are, flowers in one hand, and an open hand in invitation to come with you in the other. Why didn't you just open the door? She says with justified bemusement and intrepidation as to what your answer will be. “well the flowers are pretty big plus it's date night, I can't ask you out on a date if I open the door now can I. I know how much date night means to you and I wanted to make It celebrate it properly rather than just go through the motions.”

Sometimes our spiritual lives with God can be just like this. We know that spending time with the one with love is good and will be good in the long run but things get in the way, we just want to relax or have to much work and so missing spending some time with him isn't a big deal, and it kind of isn't. He, like a great partner, loves us and if we had cancelled our “date night” he would have understood as he wants what is best for us. However we sometimes forget what it may mean for him. HE LOVES US, he loves to spend time with us! How absolutely crazy is that. The creator of the whole universe [from the largest of star system to the smallest of particle] Loves each person and wants to spend time with us.

Stranger still if we don't spend time with him, he isn't mad, he just wants us to spend time with him. This is grace and it is the most amazing thing ever.