Discipleship is a sticky affair. I’ve been making disciples (at least trying by the help of the Holy Spirit) here in Haiti for 8 years now. If I’ve learned one thing about the process is that it is the most challenging and even complex thing I’ve ever done. Parsing Hebrew verbs is easy. Doctoral dissertation, crumb cake. Making disciples, doomed for failure.
I think there are a number of reasons its so hard, but the number 1 is (at least by my estimation) the high level of emotional involvement. The Trinitarian reality means that there is something mystically communal built into the fabric of the cosmos. When we love someone there is great risk because we’re building ourselves into them. Making disciples means loving people, there’s no way around this. Discipleship without love is probably more like “coaching”; it certainly isn’t discipleship. Jesus, who defines discipleship, did what he did out of love.
I find that in doing discipleship, there is a handicapping disconnect between heart (emotion) and mind (intellect). Someone can study the Scriptures daily, cite scripture verses, tell you the Greek and Hebrew, but when they are offended, they take revenge. Sin instinct kicks in. Sin instinct (of sin nature), I find, has strong grip on the emotional lives of disciples (I’m the first). When someone is challenging what we want, we go into monster mode. The hardest part of discipleship is training someone to override this. To allow the grace of God to cover us in the midst of emotional extremism to bring us to a place of peace, calm, and love towards others, even our enemies.
We have to reform our emotional habits. Habits are KILLERS. The first step in reforming habits is identifying them. They try to go unnoticed, natural, just a part of us. This is the first lie to encounter. Because of the cross and resurrection, everything is able to be reborn, reshaped, regenerated, transformed. This requires honest introspection. We have to be brutally honest with ourselves about our motives and why we feel the way that we do in certain circumstances. We also have to be open to loving criticism from brothers and sisters in Christ. We are our brother’s keeper!
Accountability is a required part of Christian living. Christ is at work in us and through us simultaneously. This is what Christ did for his disciples, even when they didn’t want to hear what he said.
We have to create opportunities for truth encounters with our emotions.We have to allow the truths of scripture to reign over our feelings. We have to keep each other accountable for our emotions. We must allow our feelings to conform to the truth of Christ and his very character.
