Oh the woes of the Type A person. Striving, striving, striving. Driven. Working harder, longer, faster, and still not feeling like you’re making enough progress. You wake up like Alabama sings, in such a hurry, “shaking hand with the clock” that the first thing you think about is work.
Bearing fruit as discipleship isn’t meant to be that way. Don’t get me wrong, it’s intentional. And we’ll discuss effort soon enough. But today, we’ll look at intentionally abiding (remaining) and by God’s activity, discipleship just happens.
Effortlessly. I like that word.
When I think of “effortlessly,” I think of a bird gliding on the wind, not like Forrest Gump’s feather drifting (for that has no aim and is carried along helplessly as the wind sees fit), rather there’s true power utilized in gliding. It’s making the most of the wind by letting it move you…without trying to control it. The wind has all the power of agency, and the glide depends upon the power of wind for direction, even intention. There’s movement in the glide that is a partnership of the wind and the wing.
Effortlessly is how discipleship can happen.
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John.3:8
That partnership of a person born of the Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s agency is effortless when one is filled with the Holy Spirit. “Be very careful, then, how you live … making the most of every opportunity, … understand what the Lord’s will is…be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:15-18)
- Is effortless how you would describe your growth to Christian maturity?
- What about your outreach to make disciples of others?
- What helps you? What gets in the way?