How does discipleship work when everyone is so busy? Busy. We’re all busy. You won’t find many people who deny this. With so much going on, in and around us, it’s a wonder we find time to even be with our families, let alone make time to make disciples!
We Americans are the busiest people I know. We get up early, work hard, come home and recreate even harder, until we literally fall into bed, exhausted, at the end of each night. As we drift off to sleep, we dream of waking up and doing it all over again.
If you’re one of the lucky ones, you get the weekend off to rest from all the races. If not, you probably live for vacation days, holidays or, maybe even sick days.
How does discipleship work when everyone is so busy?
We are not created for busyness.
What if I told you we weren’t created to rest from our work, but actually to work from our rest? That the best life is unhurried and unrushed. That discipleship isn’t one more thing we have to do, it is everything we get to do. That making time to fulfill the Great Commission is actually one of the most life-giving things we get to do.
I’m certain Jesus didn’t leave us with this great mission so we could feel guilty every time we think of discipleship. Jesus never speaks to us to condemn us; he speaks to set us free.
His challenge in Matthew 28:19-20 to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” is for our benefit as disciple-makers, not just the benefit of the disciple.
So what if discipleship weren’t so hard? What if we didn’t have to spend much time going and looking for the right people? What if we didn’t have to pour over a curriculum for hours on end so we know what to say?
Jesus made it simple, so we ought to keep things simple, too!
How does discipleship work when everyone is so busy?Here are 3 things to keep in mind to help you practice discipleship in our busy culture.
1. Jesus is everywhere and so are your opportunities for discipleship.
One of the best parts about the Christian life is how Jesus is integrated into everything. If He really is a part of everything we do, then discipleship is all the time and everywhere.
You know what I needed to know as a young 20-something believer? I needed to know how to go to college as a Christian. How to date as a Christian. How to make huge life choices about my future while hearing the voice of God.
I had barely begun my relationship with Jesus. It felt like there was no way I was going to be able to discern any of this stuff on my own.
Discipleship became the tool God used to grow and develop my ability to live life with him. Through relationship, with other believers ahead of me, I watched, I listened, I learned and I implemented what I saw working in their lives.
I benefitted from seeing the realness of their actual lives; the good, the bad and the ugly.
A disciple is not greater than his teacher, but everyone, when fully trained, will become like his teacher (Luke 6:40).
How does discipleship work? I’m so thankful they invited me in. So thankful they didn’t make it a program, but just gave me access to their life, their family, their arguments, their parenting, their dinners, their recreational activities and even their failures.
I am different today because of the simple investment they made.
