If you saw the movie “City
Slickers” you’ll remember Curly who tells Billy Crystal’s character that he needed to learn
what his “one thing” is. That is, he
needed to focus his energies around the one thing that he felt compelled to do
in life, the one thing
that he was good at.
My one thing is
discipleship. Jesus said before he left
the earth that our job is to go and make disciples of all nations. He didn’t say to go and get them to say a
prayer of salvation or to go and get people to go to church and tithe their
money and be good. He said to make
disciples. It’s a good idea to make this your
one thing.
If you’ve got something else
that you really love to do, that’s OK, God will help you combine it with disciplemaking. Maybe you’re like Peter
– you love to fish. You’ve got all the
right spinning lures, you know how to cast a fly without wrapping it around a
tree. Jesus said, “follow me, I’ll make
you fishers of men.”
Lots of stay-at-home moms use their role as a platform to not only
disciple their kids, but their neighbors and peers. This was my mom’s
ministry for years.
I’ve got a friend, Stu
Johnson, who loves to carve wood. He
started a wood carving business and hires prisoners so that he can disciple
them and help integrate them back into society.
That’s a good pattern – combine
what you love to do with discipleship – make that your one thing.
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This so profound. I thoroughly enjoy making disciples. In fact, I do it every Friday night with a group of Middle School girls. Boy how they hunger for God’s word. This is easy. However, not so easy is my newly saved, drama filled sister who is in the middle of a divorce. I must say, my patience level is not equal to the Word. It seems as if the godly advice given is not the answers she wants. I do try and take her to the word a lot, but it appears to have no effect – now. I know that we do not always see the fruit of our actions right away, or perhaps not until we get to the other side of heaven even. I guess since it’s my sister, I expected to have a different response. But I guess we are all human. Any advice???
How exactly do you define discipleship? I’m intrigued.
my definition of discipleship expounded here:
https://www.sethbarnes.com/?category=Discipling