Tag Archives: discipleship

A dusty and rusty collection of old hand tools on a workbench

You are not God’s project

I love a project. To be more precise, I love starting and finishing a project. The middle is not so inspiring.

Have you ever resolved to clean out your kitchen cupboards? The first step, naturally, is to pull everything out. How else are you going to clean right to the back, declutter, and reorganise? Unfortunately, this inevitably leads to a moment standing in the centre of the kitchen, with the contents of the cupboards strewn around you, when you suddenly realise that you’ve lost your motivation… and you still have to put everything back. The middle of a project is not so inspiring.

When I was a child, my parents decided to renovate our family home. It was a massive undertaking and it did not go to plan. Some unfortunate events combined with a DIY attitude meant that the whole project took a lot longer than we (I) expected. Years longer.

I like the metaphor of renovation for spiritual formation and discipleship. It captures the idea of deconstruction (sometimes you need to pull something apart) but it pairs it with a hopeful future orientation (you’re pulling it apart to build it up again better, stronger, safer, and on firmer foundations). Sometimes you planned to just update the tapware in the bathroom, but then you discover black mould or dry rot behind the bathroom sink and before you know it you’re replacing the floor and half the walls. 

A good definition is handy too, and Robert Mulholland’s is my favourite. Spiritual formation is “(1) a process (2) of being conformed (3) to the image of Christ (4) for the sake of others.”[1] Over time, we are being changed and there is a directionality to that change: the image of Christ. What for? For the sake of the world.

This process, though: why is it taking so long?

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A photo of a kitchen sink at the author's family bach. The dishes have been abandoned.

Give it to your sister

I can feel my hackles rise any time someone invites us to turn to Luke 10, the story of Mary and Martha. The narrative in my head goes something like, “Here we go again, let’s take a closer look at how I’m not being enough by doing too much,” accompanied by an eye-roll that I may or may not be able to internalise.

Now I’m clearly projecting a whole lot on to the Scripture here, and on to the people who teach from it. But I’ve wrestled with this portion often enough to come away jaded almost every time it’s opened. Not because of the story or the message, but because of the naivety with which it is often applied.

What I would really like is for someone to talk about how pissed everyone would have been if Martha had taken a seat with Mary at Jesus’ feet.

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A photo of Maja's phone background with the phrase "your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence in me" on a moody sea and sky landscape

Settle down

For the last few months I’ve had this phrase on my phone’s background

“Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me”

Isaiah 30:15 (The Message paraphrase)

It’s a reminder that I’ve placed before my eyes as frequently as my phone ever is (too often), in the hope that it will eventually soak into my heart. It speaks to my all-too-human impulse to make it happen for myself, to take things into my own hands and bend them to my own will. To make it work… somehow.

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children's book picture of Martha angrily baking

Martha, Martha

I often feel that Martha gets a bad rap. After all, she’s just trying to cook up something amazing for Jesus. But she turns into a stressed-out hostess, trying to make sure it’s all perfect, but poisoning the atmosphere with her grouchy attitude… that sounds a lot like me in the hours leading up to a daughter’s birthday party. If you haven’t witnessed that scenario, firstly be thankful, and then secondly (re)acquaint yourself with Luke 10:38-42.

She works hard, she gets grumpy, she complains to Jesus, and Jesus tells her to chill out.

Anyone else identifying with Martha here?

I hear the rebuke, the redirection towards peace and connection, but I’m still left wondering, What about dinner? Who’s going to take care of that?

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Jesus feminist

There are some bits of the bible that you trip over when you’re reading, thinking, “hmm… that’s a bit weird”. And then stumped you think, “oh well, better move on”. But if you sit with them a bit longer and exercise some patience, eventually some other things slot into place and a glimmer of insight appears.

One of this tripping points for me was this moment in Luke 11:27-28, where Jesus has been teaching the crowd and doing his miracles thing, when a woman cries out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” 

Now that’s a weird heckle.

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