Unforced Rhythms

-

Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. (Matthew 11:29 in The Message)

I taught a breakout session at my school’s Parent Conference last week about discipling our children. (Read that closely: not "disciplining". Discipling.) One of my primary points was that discipling is not teaching. We disciple not through words but through actions – through living life together.

When Jesus called his disciples, he didn’t say, “Come – have a seat. Listen to what I have to say.” He said, “Follow me.” When he told them to love each other, he didn’t give them a definition to write down and recite back to him later. He said, “Love each other the way I have loved you.”

We learn more by example than we learn by words – from our parents and from our Lord.

Walk with me . . . work with me . . . being a disciple of Jesus involves with-ness. It’s concerned with acting more than it is with knowing.

But those last words – the unforced rhythms of grace – they’ve been percolating in me for a while. It’s a beautiful phrase. And I suspect there is more meaning there than I can grasp at the moment.

Unforced . . . that’s so important. Nothing about the spiritual life is forced on us. God is not a dictator or a programmer. We are free to make any choices we want. (For some of you, that statement just made you squirm. Stay with me.)  

I know there are many people out there who are reluctant to buy into the Christianity thing because they think they would have to change their lives so much and stop doing things they want to do. And . . . well . . . yes and no.

What I’m coming to realize is, if we’re doing this right, we will want to make those changes. Maybe not at first – that’s the “yes” of my ambiguous answer. Yes, you may have to give up some things. But as you grow in relationship with God (which is what it’s all about) and grow more like him (which is an inevitable result of a close relationship), you start wanting the same things He wants.

So, no, none of this is forced on us. We choose it. Because we want it – eventually. If we’re focused on God and not on ourselves or anyone else, we get there, and none of it is forced.

And here’s the cool thing: as we grow more like him, we discover that living his way, following his example, becomes less awkward. Less clunky. More smooth. More rhythmic.

It becomes less about desperately looking for the rule to follow and making myself obey . . . and more about feeling God’s direction in my spirit and going with it. It’s less about trying not to make God mad at me and more about enjoying God’s embrace wherever I’m at. It’s less about deserving and more about receiving. Less about work and more about grace.

Unforced rhythms of grace . . . isn’t that lovely? The language AND the lifestyle it implies. My pastor’s regular benediction is adapted from William Sloane Coffin, and it ends with these words:

               So may God take your mind and think through it.

               May He take your lips and speak through them.

               And may He take your hearts and set them on fire.

 May it be so, Jesus . . . in the easy, graceful rhythm of your life in me.

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 19, 2024 at 10:03 AM

    Yes! The term discipleship has been misused so much that I prefer spiritual formation. As our DNA and our habits have formed us, we are also formed by by who or what we follow

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This One Person

-
Image
Y’all, God has blessed me with really good people in my life. People who love me, support me, appreciate me, and go out of their way for me. The gifts and kind words and all-day-long singing I received on my birthday last week were small examples of that. Seriously, friends . . . how do I deserve you? So many good people. So, I really shouldn’t give as much attention as I do to the one exception, right? One person. There’s just this one person . They are a constant burr in my saddle these days. They make my life harder – and if this isn’t intentional on their part, or at least passive aggressive, it is most certainly selfish. In almost everything they do, they seem to communicate a lack of respect for me.  It’s only one person. Why do I let this one person affect me so much? We’ve all got our baggage, you know. I’ve shared some of mine before here in this blog. One particular parcel I tote around unseen is an unspoken message I’ve heard in my heart since childhood – particula
Read more

Hopeful Reality

-
Image
This past July, I spent a couple crazy weeks working at Crystal Sea Drama Company (which I casually refer to as “my theater” because I've spent so much time there over the past decade). It was the year for our New Play Festival, which I’ve said many times is the best thing we do. CSDC students wrote the plays, CSDC alumni directed the plays, and CSDC campers performed the plays. Last fall, I taught the playwriting class preparing for this big event. There were six girls in the class – more than I’ve ever had for a playwriting class. They were all writers already. Most of them had novels in progress, and some of them had two or three they were working on. But writing a play . . . that’s a different kettle of fish, they learned. And it was a fun few months working with them in that endeavor. I was proud of the work they ended the semester with. Only three of them chose to have their plays performed in the festival, which was fine. But not until we were rehearsing this summer did
Read more

Life is People-y

-
Image
I love my job. Really, I really, really do. But my place of employment has had a few rocky years. Every once in a while, we come to a point where I say to myself, Okay, time for a fresh start. The old issues are over. The people who were discontented have left or are appeased. Now we can move forward and have peace. Bu-u-ut no. There’s always something. I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that even though I love my job, there will always be stressors I’m dealing with. Because as my colleague says, it’s a very people-y job. And people are . . . well, people . People are wounded. Everyone has been damaged by someone and bears the scars. And that damage often bleeds out in our behavior toward others. People are fearful. They are afraid of making mistakes. They are afraid of saying the wrong thing. They are afraid of confrontation. They are afraid of burning bridges. They are afraid of being labeled and unliked. People are selfish. Even when they want to be self-less, they
Read more