Surrendering to Your will ... reflection on Discipleship

I was asked to meditate on discipleship. What is it to be your disciple? First, you called. You called us by name. It was up to us to respond to You. We responded to Your call yet we were still unsure where You will take us. We follow and we observe. We see that you are setting an example. You love with mercy and You forgive without hesitation. You heal without cost and You glorify Your father.

 

We walk with You along the road. You walk with us. Are we accompanying You or are You accompanying us? You said to be a leader, we have to serve and that there is no greater gift than to give one’s life for a friend. We do not understand all that You are saying but we are drawn to You because You are life eternal. You are the water that never dries up, You are the love that never asks anything in return. You are the compassion that each needs. You are the servant leader we long to be.

 

So what is it like to walk with you on the dirt roads? What is it like to follow You? It is a wonderful experience filled with awe and admiration as well as challenges. You healed the paralytic, You cured the leper, You asked us to feed the multitude, not by our hands, but by the readiness to do Your will. To be your disciple is to be obedient to Your will. It is to follow the inner stirrings of our hearts with the still small voice that You call us with. To be Your disciple means to listen, to listen to that voice that tells us to love without boundaries and to be compassionate as You are compassionate. To walk on the dirt roads is to acknowledge our unworthiness and by walking with You, we are cleansed. Eventually, we will be cleansed by Your blood but we have yet to get there.

 

Now, we are just talking about following You. You do not force us. You called us and we answered for ourselves. What does it mean to follow You? It means to share in Your experiences, in Your sufferings, in Your joys, in Your moments of desolation and Your moments of consolation. Following You is imitating Your way, being gentle yet firm, never compromising on the will of Your Father. Following You is walking the path of love, the love that is greater than ourselves. It is the journey to finding ourselves in Your eyes. Who are we for You and how beautiful we are. You called us because we were imperfect. You called us not because we could do something for You but because by Your love our lives will be the testament of how Your transformative love can change us. We were fishermen, we were sinners, we were tax collectors, we were prostitutes. We were all unclean like the lepers and we were all paralysed by our own sins, yet You called us. You called us so we could receive Your love and so we can pass it on. You called us so that we may touch each other’s lives as You have touched us.

 

You answered, “only through prayer” can that affliction be healed. So, we lift up in prayer our affliction and we lift up in prayer Your will, that it may be done in our lives as Your disciples. Like You prayed in Gethsemane, “Your will be done.”