following Jesus isn’t as hard as we make it

and it’s more demanding than we treat it.

Before Lent I usually plan a “continuing education.” This is an opportunity for me to step away and reflect. And anyway, pastors are expected to complete so much continuing education each year. 

This year because of life and weather, the schedule I had set went to the wind. I it was out of my control though, so I tried not to stress about it. And a cool thing happened; at Grand View’s chapel service, a new schedule fell into place!

The week wasn’t what I planned, but it was good. And I walked away with this thought: “Following Jesus isn’t as hard as we make it; and it’s more demanding than we treat it.”

Let’s begin with the first part, following Jesus isn’t as hard as we make it. 

One of the meetings I wanted to make sure I kept, was with the President of Grand View. Under his leadership Grand View has gone through a number of changes, and I wanted to ask him about that. But he wanted to talk about the church. 

He told me about his disappointment when churches getting so caught up in filling the council and committees seats, that we lose sight of providing and receiving ministry. 

And a similar thought was shared to me in one of the last places I would have expected, the gym. I was talking with someone (who goes to another church), and he told me he doesn’t feel connected to the church like he used to. When I asked him why, he said it felt like every church is spread so thin all we focus on is running things, rather than the sort of stuff you’d hope churches would be about.

It felt like, we’ve been banging our heads against the wall, tiring ourselves out trying to do things no one cares if we do, instead of the stuff they hope we will…

And now the second part, that following Jesus is more demanding than we make it. 

A big part of my week that I didn’t plan on, was going to classes and talking about how Christians understand vocation (our calling from God). I wanted to hear what the students thought, but they were pretty tight lipped. So the professor asked them to share what they learned from interviewing a senior-citizen about how they figured out what their calling was. 

The students repeated sayings the person they met with shared with them. Sayings like, “Don’t get so caught up in working toward goals that you miss what’s going on in front of you.” Every saying they shared I said, “Yeah, that’s true. But it’s one of truths that’s easier to say than do.” 

And what Jesus calls us to do is like that. We know we’re should love and serve each other, but it’s easier to say than do. Especially in the moment. In the moment we think we can be polite instead of loving. And little by little, we wind up sleepwalking through our discipleship. 

Because the truth is, we’re given hundreds of opportunities to love each other in costly ways each week. And Jesus promises us, if we’d just lose ourselves in doing that, we’d find our true lives. Instead of taking up the adventure, though, we just try and get through our day with as little effort as possible.

So what if this Lent, we stopped making it harder on ourselves, and instead spent our energy on the stuff that matters? It’ll be easier than what we’ve been doing, and a lot more difficult. But, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Let’s try together,

~Pr. Ryan