Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Pondering Christ
As I was reading The Imitation of Christ (Thomas Kempis) this morning, it was impressed upon me the seriousness of discipleship in likeness of Christ. Kempis writes, "Whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ." The writing of Kempis, while familiar, struck me because I am also rereading The Politics of Jesus (John Howard Yoder). Yoder makes the same claim, although more forcefully (I think). As a Christian, do I really consider both Jesus' life and his teachings to be the norm for my life? According to Yoder, truly following Jesus will lead us into a life of suffering, servanthood, and possibly death: "To follow after Christ is not simply to learn from him, but also to share his destiny," and "Servanthood replaces dominion, forgiveness absorbs hostility. Thus - and only thus - are we bound by New Testament thought 'to be like Jesus.'" So, am I following Jesus and his example of faith, discipleship, servanthood, and suffering, or am I blending what I think discipleship should be with what feels comfortable and what is acceptable by most?
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3 comments:
Hey Josh,
As I read my devotions this morning my thoughts were (and this reminds me of your thoughts here), if I am comfortable am I truly living for Christ. I get caught up in thinking I have to do something truly big to be walking in my faith. Then I struggle with, am I doing this because it makes me feel better or am I doing what God is directing me to do. Do you think many people struggle with this?
I think you are right; whom are we following? Is it Christ or what some call "other lights," which can be our own reason, other people's reason, my conscience (which can delude us!), government, etc.? Furthermore, some of the things, possibly many of the things, Christ asks us to do will not make us physically feel better, such as suffering or refusing to yield to anger. According to the New Testament, walking by faith is no more than following Christ in every situation. Linking this to us today, examine the WWJD fad a few years ago. Before we can act how Jesus would act in any given situation, we must think and have our lives transformed by Christ every day. Having a big WWJD moment can only occur after I have been living with a Christ-like mind every day.
Thanks, Keith and I talked about this last night and he said about the same thing. Your comment on the conscience is so very true.
We got about 4" of snow and the temp has sure dropped.
Make sure those puppies don't unwrap any more presents :-)
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