Regroup

Seems we are kind of stuck here, Aaron. Let's start over. What are you needing or wanting with discipleship? Remember the knowing, being, doing discussion? We seem to be stuck on the knowing. That is okay, because there is much knowledge to discover.

Do you want to talk about deep issues? If so, you might be interested in our Monday night group. There we sit around and talk about whatever spiritual issues are on our minds.

Do you want to focus more on your own spiritual formation, your own journey toward learning to be like Jesus? If so, then you need to take a look at how balanced your spiritual life is and make some adjustments. This will require practice not just talk. The practice will give you something to talk about. It will give you something to react to, something to adjust.

It took me 3 years to learn to water ski. When I first tried, I had no idea what to do with my body. My friend tried to explain it, but my body had no basis to respond. We could have stood on the shore and talked and talked about what it was like to water ski, but I would not really know what it was like because I had never actually done it.

So, I got in the water and positioned myself and gave the boat driver the thumbs up. The power from the boat pulled me forward and I ended up being drug through the water with my skis behind me. Okay, I leaned forward to much. Next try, I made some adjustments and tried to keep my knees up and arms pulled in. This worked in that I did not just get pulled forward flat on my face. But when I did this, it felt like I was being drug throught the water in this tucked position without coming up out of the water. I tried this several times until I was so tired I had to quit. I kept this up for three seasons, always trying, learning what did not work, and making adjustments. On the third year, I tried just a slight standing up move that popped me up out of the water onto my ski, only to be pulled into the wake to fall over. How do you steer the ski? But I made it up. I tried it again and did the same moves I had learned that worked before and again I popped up out of the water. This time I when I popped up, I tried moving my back leg and found that I could steer the ski!

See how this worked. If I did not get in the water and practice, I would never have learned to ski. Every attempt was meaningful. As bad as it seemed, I learned something. I had something to react to. Some things worked and some did not. I could then make some adjustments.

This is a good metaphor for the spiritual life. You have to get in the water and try. That is what discipleship is about. If you are not doing anything, then you will have nothing to react to and no basis to make adjustments.

You have to first consent to do something spiritually. Some form of practice. Preferrably something in each of the areas of knowing, being, and doing. It could be anything, even what we are doing in youth.

So what will it be? Would you rather stop what we are doing here, join the group on Monday, or do the one-on-one discipleship thing?