Work. Rest. Disciple. LIVE. These are all the things that I have been learning over the past few years while journeying with DCC. Things the Bible talks explicitly about but we rarely seem to pick up on. It seems a far cry from the "tithe, pray, and don't look at porn message" I have heard in the past. Although the latter has their place these do not make up the heart of Christ. And I know you are looking at prayer and thinking I made a mistake but I include it because I have often been told to pray but not often been told how to do it and I have not often been treated with compassion while being instructed to do so. Today, while I was taking a walk, I was thinking about my life and how God seems to be speaking to me so much more clearly than he has before. How in many moments I find myself thinking of him and how loving he is. I feel as though I am in rhythm with him. And I started thinking about my own repentance and why I am more apt to turn the other way now than I used to be. I honestly believe that it is because he has changed my heart to be in tune with his.
Imagine being attracted to the way someone lives. Sometimes we will start dressing like them, listening to the same music, eating at their favorite restaurants, just so we can have the same interests. But what if instead you ended up spending time with them? You become able to see how they might parent or treat their friends. You find out how they keep their life in balance and you begin taking on those qualities. See the difference? Feel it? You still get to be yourself and have your own tastes in the second option, but something changes in you that is good. Over the past few years I have had the incredible opportunity to witness disciples of Christ who make me feel better about being ME because they have brought me to the rhythms of God. They have shown me how "deeply we can drink of peace." They have taught me how to tap into a full life and therefore become an image-bearer. The world needs so much more of this than we know. People are more surprised when I tell them how much I value rest on a regular basis than they are that I don't use bad language (which is partly because I do swear but you get the point). The world needs to know how they were created to live and that out of that they then are transformed. I am beginning to understand how discipleship works. It is not manipulating or tweaking the lives of those around you but it is reflecting the balance of life that God created for us and inviting others to know the reason we are people's of peace. We are not robots for the kingdom...we are rivers of life, that flow broadly and deeply from the One true source. Work. Rest. Disciple. LIVE.
