"Piss off! I've got this." Putting the DIS in Disciple.

Don't worry. I got this. I don't need your help.

Have you ever felt like someone you cared about was hanging from a cliff, their hands loosing grip, and the fatal fall awaited them? Have you felt like you’ve thrown them a rope and they refused to take it, saying they can climb up themselves and that they enjoy the challenge? Have you ever watched them try to climb up this cliff time and time and time again on their own just to fail? You’ve sent them a rescue helicopter but they said they aren’t ready, they want to continue doing it their way. They say their climb is private they didn’t want to share it with a rescue crew. They said they like the climb and they don’t want to have to follow rescue protocol. Thanks for the offer, they see where you are coming from, but they’d just continue hanging and flailing because they aren’t so sure about this rescuer. After all they haven’t reached rock bottom. Yet.

I have felt that way. I feel that way.



And it is incredibly frustrating. I want to scream. I want to shake the stubborn ignorance out of people. I want to throw in the towel and I want to give up. I don’t really care about this person’s life, this person’s soul.

Because if you haven’t figured it out yet. The rescue I have presented is rescue via Jesus. And I do care about this person. Because Christ compels me to care about them. My flesh is not liking this discipleship thing. Because it takes so much time, energy, emotion, strength and resources and there are no tangible results. Can you disciple someone who doesn’t really want to be discipled anyway? Maybe I should call it something else.

Sometimes rescue is scary.

Spiritual roadblocks? .....No that doesn’t work.

Banging my head against a holy wall? .....Definitely what it feels like but not quite right either.

Evangelism/preaching? .....Closer, but not quite there.

Obedience. There it is, I think that’s the one.

I am obeying God’s call. I am doing what He told me to. And sometimes it really sucks. I have been called to love and guide, mentor/disciple, admonish, teach etc etc etc. I know I have been called to do this on a personal level for this season of my life. I know it is preparing me for something more. But I tend to forget who is really in control. I am planting a seed. I am obeying. I must trust my Lord to make the seed grow. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, but God does. So someone please remind to stop expecting my own outcomes and wait for God’s.

But still it is perplexing when it seems that there are people out there who want to fail. Who refuse to grow. Who refuse to be rescued. Who choose failure. Whether it’s a believer refusing to go deeper or an unbeliever knowing the Truth and refusing Jesus anyway. We have all met those people, who seem content to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over, living the same stagnant life and dwelling in the status quo of their own muck. But why? I have poured truth and light into someone and all I see in return is rebellion and a return to old ways. I have given Godly advice on how to seek Christ and better a life, just to see it thrown aside as an unwelcome perspective. I have presented the irresistible Gospel of Christ to those whose hearts have been pierced, when they are broken and their options are scarce. When rock bottom is all they know and they need a Savior. And they still resist.

Why do they resist? When they have all the info, when they know (and they really do know) that Jesus Christ can change their life. When taking godly advice can save them from future pain and heartache why do they keep resisting when they know Jesus is the ONLY WAY?

I’ll tell you why. People are lazy. They are selfish and they are scared. And they hate change. People can be residing in a swamp filled with fetid smelling goop. They can be up to their chins in their own excrement with the flies nibbling at their eyelids and if offered a way out they would stay. Because they are comfortable. They are afraid of washing off the shit, swatting the flies away and moving on to a new stage. Because they’ve grown accustomed to the smell of feces and they kind of like it. As crappy as life may be, more often then not, people are unwilling to risk that change could actually be crappier.

He really does.

Oswald Chambers said that when people were around Jesus they were constantly convicted of the sin in their lives, but they were also convicted of the fact that a life with Christ meant that they could be like Him. And yet in His earthly life and now people constantly reject Him. The ignorant are still crucifying Him because they are afraid of what He has to offer. They know that their lives can be redeemed but they also know that their lives will never be the same and that scares the piss out of them. They might dabble to see if they can get a residual effect with a little prayer here and a little Christian jargon there but there is never a complete surrender and therefore there is no change. No redemption. No new creation. No dying to old ways. Because they can’t commit. And they are too stubborn to admit that they don’t know what they are doing. Admitting that there is a better way is admitting that we don’t have a clue. But the truth is we don’t have a clue. Not without Jesus. This life holds no purpose without Him. People will continue to try to fill their own emptiness in the same old ways because they don’t want to admit that they can’t do it alone. None of us can do it alone. We weren’t designed to. We were made to walk through this life with Christ. We were made to be co-heirs in His kingdom. We were made to lean on Him because our human strength is feeble. We were made to be His. But we were given the choice. My father doesn’t want mindless robots. Just like the rest of us, He wants real love. He doesn’t need it (He’s God) but He desires it. He created us for love. To be loved by Him and to love Him in return. This partnership, this espousal will never be equal. His love will always be greater than ours, His holiness will always be greater than ours. He is the one who is in charge (whether you surrender or not any control we have in this world is all an illusion). He is the Master, we are servants. So many people can’t handle that. So they stay in their muck, or they hang from their cliff, because somehow they are comfortable in their desperation and somehow they’ve convinced themselves they are in control.