Endings and Beginnings

Half way through the week...

Where are doubts/curiosities dancing in this Easter season?
Where does faith start to soar and sail like a boat on a windy day across the sea?

Where do you feel stuck/stymied?
Where do you feel like the Spirit is up to something brand new in your life?

The disciples encountering Jesus on the mountain ~ worshiped and doubted.  It isn't as though we have to classify which of the eleven were in each camp.  We don't have to identify who sang out, "Christ the Lord is Risen today."  And which disciples said, "Whose the dude in the Jesus mask?"  Rather that verse can faithfully be translated, "They all worshiped and all doubted."  The two were mixed together inside each disciple.  The two were a powerful concoction.  Because...as Buechner said, "Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith." 

And to be clear, Jesus doesn't seem to even notice that there was some doubt or disbelief in the disciples.  He doesn't wage a finger and say, "Now hear-th me-th...you gotta-th believe-th always!"  Jesus seems to accept that doubt and worship are always going hand and hand.  This makes sense in a Jewish tradition that still to this day values much more discussion and questioning...exploration and wandering off in all directions.  Our Jewish brothers and sisters are much more engaged in tending a fire of faith than saying a prayer in a monotone voice...less we wake the sleeping God.  Jesus doesn't seem to think that it is all that unusual or even worth talking about the doubt.  He just takes both the worship and doubt...and sends the disciples out.

Out into the world.  Not with certainty or confidence.  Not with this notion that we are right and just join our team.

Yes, I know the Great Commission has been used (even abused) to justify that Christians have a mandate to convert people.  "Make disciples," Jesus said it...we yell as we pound the pulpit. 

Only he didn't.

He said, "Go...discipling."

Wait...that isn't even a word!  Discipling is underlined in red...which totally means it is not officially recognized in the English dictionary.

Discipling doesn't sound right to our ears...but it feels right in my heart.

Disciple isn't just something you or I do...some identity we put on.  Disciple should be a verb to describe how we go about our lives.  Discipling should be on all our "to-do" lists every. single. day. 

To disciple would mean...

Caught up in God's grace feeding and fueling our lives in ways we share with others.  Just the other day, our church delivered May Day flowers to the nursing home next door to our church because Jesus invited us to love our neighbors. 

Caught up in God's grace not as an end in my soul...but as a beginning to what will move out of me toward others.

Caught up in God's grace because my soul longs and thirsts for grace.  It is like food to my body giving me strength. 

Discipling is letting our light shine and sharing that light with others, because that is what light does.

What comes into your mind when you hear discipling?
What actions so far this week would you call or classify discipling?  It could be prayer or conversations or listening to music or reading poetry or visiting someone or walking in creation or

Or

Just keep adding because it is what you call or classify discipling.

It is my prayer that you will find more than a trace of grace in discipling...that it might move in life giving ways for you and the world in the rest of the week.

Blessings ~~