Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did.

by John Mark Comer

“The story you live in is the story you live out.”[45]

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed.

If a person’s vision of God is distorted—if they view him as harsh, demeaning, or chronically angry…or as liberal, laissez-faire, and simply there to champion their sexual pleasure—the more religious they become, the worse they become. Because we become like who we believe God is.

Love has been shattered by the fall. Hurt, betrayal, and loneliness mar the human soul. Jesus has saved, is saving, and will save us from this ruin by forming (through his apprenticeship program) a glorious new family of love.

Something approaching Christlikeness is possible in this life. It really is. We can be healed, we can be set free of broken patterns that stretch back generations, we can be transformed into people who are genuinely pervaded by love and joy and peace. Our souls can throb with the bliss of union with God. Our bodies can become temples; our neighborhoods, holy ground; our days, eternity in time; our moments, miracles.

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.[11]

Jesus lived in a culture where a lot of people were hostile toward him. How did he invite them into his kingdom? One meal at a time…

Hospitality is the opposite of xenophobia. It’s the love of the stranger, not the hate or fear of the “other.” It’s the act of welcoming the outsider in

The gospel is that Jesus is the ultimate power in the universe and that life with him is now available to all. Through his birth, life, teachings, miracles, death, resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Spirit, Jesus has saved, is saving, and will save all creation. And through apprenticeship to Jesus, we can enter into this kingdom and into the inner life of God himself. We can receive and give and share in Love Loving. We can be a part of a community that Jesus is, ever so slowly, forming into a radiant new society of peace and justice that one day will co-govern all creation with the Creator, in an eternity of ever-unfolding creativity and growth and joy. And anyone can be a part of this story.

Our job isn’t to “save” people; it’s to say with the apostle John, “We have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you” that “the life was manifested.”[40]

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.[42]

When Jesus expels demons and heals the sick, he is driving out of creation the powers of destruction, and is healing and restoring created beings who are hurt and sick. The lordship of God to which the healings witness, restores creation to health. Jesus’ healings are not supernatural miracles in a natural world. They are the only truly “natural” thing in a world that is unnatural, demonized and wounded.[50]

Every person we meet is a God opportunity—to love and to serve. Every day is full of possible miracles. Every moment is pregnant with possibility, if only we open our eyes.

Whatever your life’s work is, do it well….If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and earth will have to pause and say, “Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.”[72]

Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.[73]

“Nurturing a growing spirituality with depth in our present-day culture will require a thoughtful, conscious, intentional plan for our spiritual lives.”[1]

If your emotional life is off kilter, if you feel far from God, stressed, anxious, and chronically mad, and you’re not becoming more of a person of love, then the odds are that something about the system of your life is poorly designed.

“Following Jesus is kind of like playing golf. The easy part is to get a vision of what you need to do—the perfect swing, the right body stance, the correct angle of approach—and, of course, make par. The hard part is getting that vision into your muscle memory so it just naturally comes out of you without even thinking about it.”

A good rule can set us free to be our true and best selves. It is a working document, a kind of spiritual budget, not carved in stone but subject to regular review and revision. It should support us, but never constrict us.[20]

The disciplines are activities of mind and body purposefully undertaken, to bring our personality and total being into effective cooperation with the divine order. They enable us more and more to live in a power that is, strictly speaking, beyond us, deriving from the spiritual realm itself, as we “yield ourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”[32]

When I offer spiritual direction to people, I often begin by prescribing sleep, margin, time off work—rest. Because chronically exhausted, sleep-deprived, overbusy people are not loving, peaceful, and full of joy. Rest is essential to apprenticeship under Jesus. Tiredness is an unavoidable feature of life this side of eternity, but so many of us operate at a dangerous level of tired, so much that we can’t sense God’s presence or hear his voice.

Sabbath is an entire day of your week—one-seventh of your life—set aside to not only stop and rest but also delight in and worship the God who made you to be with himself. It’s a day to cultivate joy in a world of sadness.

“Speech is the organ of the present world. Silence is the mystery of the world to come.”[40] In silence, we enter into the mystery of the world to come—and into God himself.

There are four basic levels of prayer[42] (or, you could say, dimensions to prayer): Talking to God—praying premade prayers like the psalms or liturgy, or singing prayers at church, and so on Talking with God—conversing with God about your life. Lifting up the details of your life before God with gratitude (talking to him about what is good in your life and world), lament (talking to him about what is evil in your life and world), and petition and intercession (calling on God to fulfill his promises to overcome evil with good) Listening to God—hearing God’s voice through quiet listening, Lectio Divina, the prophetic, and more Being with God—just looking at God, looking at you, in love (also called “contemplative prayer”)

“We generally sin alone, but we heal together.”[48] Or as they say in AA: “I get drunk, we stay sober.”

our role isn’t to “convert” anyone, but it is to preach—to tell others the good news of Jesus, through the practice of witness. To do this, we must become a people of hospitality in a culture of hostility. We must embody and extend the love, welcome, warmth, and generosity of the inner life of God.[55] We must open our homes, our tables, and our lives to “the last, the least, and the lost.”[56]

Following Jesus is not about doing more, but doing less.

He categorized nine spiritual temperaments, each with its own unique pathway to God: Naturalists: loving God in nature and the outdoors Sensates: loving God with the senses—candles, incense, materials, and so on Traditionalists: loving God through ritual, symbolism, and liturgy Ascetics: loving God in solitude and self-denial Activists: loving God by fighting injustice Caregivers: loving God by caring for those in need Enthusiasts: loving God with music and dance and celebration Contemplatives: loving God through quiet adoration Intellectuals: loving God with the mind[61]

Learning theorists point out that learning any new skill follows a J-shaped curve. When you attempt to grow in a new skill (from playing the piano to practicing Sabbath), you often get worse at it before you get better.

Jesus did not beg or manipulate or bully. Coercion is not a fruit of the Spirit. He didn’t strong-arm or offer a sales pitch; he just invited. And when people balked or made excuses… He let them walk away.

Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.[18]

A Rule of Life from Practicing the Way A community of rest in a culture of hurry and exhaustion, through the practice of Sabbath. A community of peace and quiet in a culture of anxiety and noise, through the practice of solitude. A community of communion with God in a culture of distraction and escapism, through the practice of prayer. A community of love and depth in a culture of individualism and superficiality, through the practice of community. A community of courageous fidelity to orthodoxy in a culture of ideological compromise, through the practice of Scripture. A community of holiness in a culture of indulgence and immorality, through the practice of fasting. A community of contentment in a culture of consumerism, through the practice of generosity. A community of justice, mercy, and reconciliation in a culture of injustice and division, through the practice of service. A community of hospitality in a culture of hostility, through the practice of witness.