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Because the role of truth is central to our spiritual formation.
And yet, very few of us think of following Jesus as a practice.
For all the pro-grace, anti-works talk in the church, many people still attempt to live out Jesus’ teachings based on biblical knowledge and willpower alone.
You can’t follow Jesus alone. Not “shouldn’t”; can’t.
Does the community call people up to a higher level of apprenticeship? Or does it devolve to the lowest common denominator of maturity (or immaturity)?
“Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than they love the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be
ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.”[55]
This is where the marathon analogy falls woefully short. The practices don’t just strengthen our willpower muscle (as with running); they open us to a power from beyond us—the power to change.
“Salvation”—rightly understood as the healing of our whole person—“belongs to our God.”[56]
As the saying goes, “A black belt is just a white belt who never quit.” A saint is just an ordinary apprentice who stayed at it with Jesus.
Learning theorists frame apprenticeship as a four-stage training process: I do; you watch. I do; you help. You do; I help. You do; I watch.[5]
If you are an apprentice of Jesus, your end goal is to grow and mature into the kind of person who can say and do all the things Jesus said and did.
Anytime I talk about Jesus as the example of how to live, people think, Yeah, sure, but he was God. I’m just…well, me. It’s not like I can go out and heal the sick and do miracles and such…
But this raises a provocative theological question: Where did Jesus get his power? Ordinary people do not walk around raising the dead.
The spiritual writer Henri Nouwen once said Jesus’ life moved along a continuum from solitude to community to ministry.[15]
Rhythm #1: Making space for the gospel (i.e., hospitality)
One theologian wrote, “Jesus got himself crucified by the way he ate.”[20]
First, Luke wrote, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”[24] That was what Jesus did—his mission. Then he wrote, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking.”[25] That was how Jesus did it—his method.[26]
We can’t force a person to become a disciple of Jesus, nor would we want to. But we can offer them a space where such a change can occur, even if slowly over time. We can actively seek out the lonely, the
newcomer, the uncool, the poor, the immigrant or refugee—those with no family or no home—and welcome them in to a community of love.
The beauty of Jesus’ method is this: It is something you’re already doing.
Anyone can do this.
Rhythm #2: Preaching the gospel
Witness, like disciple, is a noun in the New Testament, not a verb. It’s something you are before it’s something you
That’s okay, we’re not responsible for outcomes any more than a witness is responsible for the ruling in a trial.
80 percent or more of evangelism in the early church was done by ordinary Christians, not pastors or Christian celebrities, and it was mostly just by explaining their unusual way of life to their family and friends, by living in such a way that people were drawn to the beauty of their lives.
The implication is: No one person can do all this.
Work at its best is an expression of love. As the poet Kahlil Gibran put it, “Work is love made visible.”[71]
After all, the opposite of contemplation is not action but reaction.
This is one way to think about discipleship in the modern era: as a disciplined effort to slow down and make space for God to transform you.
Put simply, a Rule of Life is a plan to follow Jesus. To stay true to one’s commitment to apprentice under him.
David Brooks once defined commitment as “falling in love with something [or someone] and then building a structure of behavior around it for those moments when love falters.”[6]
“Today, you are young and very much in love and you think that your love can sustain your marriage. It can’t. Let your marriage sustain your love.”[7]
“Your system is perfectly designed to give you the results you are getting.”
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”[15]
It will help you turn
vision into reality
This is the great challenge of discipleship: to move from aspirational ideas to authentic transformation.
It will help you experience peace as you live in alignment with your deepest desires
It will help you live at the right pace
It will help you balance freedom and discipline
But a Rule is very different: It’s self-generated from your internal desires, it has a ton of flexibility, it’s relationship based (not morality based), and it’s designed to index you toward your vision of the good life.
They are not a barometer of spiritual maturity
They are not a gloomy bore
They are not a form of merit
They are not the Christian version of virtue signaling
They are not a means of control
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.
Solitude is the most foundational of all the practices of Jesus.
Centuries ago, Saint Isaac the Syrian said, “Speech is the organ of the present world. Silence is the mystery of the world to come.”[40]
