Learning to follow...

I am reading through the Cost of Discipleship right now by Deitrich Bonhoeffer. It is a great read, and a very challenging read. I also just read through the gospel of Matthew (it too is a great and challenging read). I have been reminded of Jesus' frequent invitations to "follow." You see it repeatedly in the gospels:
Matthew 4:19, 8:22, 9:9, 10:38, 16:24, 19:21
Mark 1:17, 2:14, 8:34, 10:21
Luke 5:27, 9:23, 9:59, 9:61, 14:27, 18:22
John 1:43, 10:27, 12:26, 21:19, 21:22
This adds up to 21 times throughout Jesus' recorded ministry in which he invited people to "follow." I think sometimes in Evangelical, "Bible believing" churches we are guilty of reducing the gospel to "easy beliefism." It becomes all about articulating the "right stuff." So we ask people to repeat prayers or to answer "is this what you believe" questions and then declare people as saved. In the midst of all of this I think we must be careful not to miss Jesus' words of "follow me."

To follow, no doubt, requires faith. You cannot follow Christ without faith in Christ. Jesus repeatedly said, "your faith has..." However, to follow Christ is deeper and "messier" than reciting back a ten point doctrinal statement. To follow is to "put feet" to what we say we believe. Following is where our orthodoxy flows into orthopraxy. It is hard. Bonhoeffer's book (mentioned above) walks through the sermon on the mount that Jesus preached. Bonhoeffer seems to imply, "what if Jesus meant what He said to His followers?". I think the tendency is to seek to "hermeneutically soften" Jesus words using other Scriptures. I'm not sure if we can do that as we live out Luke 9:23 where Jesus said,"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." "Followship" is impossible apart from the grace of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

My thinking on this is in process, so I won't ramble any further. I like Shane Claiborne's thoughts from his book "The Irresistable Revolution." He shares...
"But then you start to think there must be more to Christianity, more than just laying your life and sins at the foot of the cross. I came to realize that preachers were telling me to lay my life at the foot of the cross and weren't giving me anything to pick up. A lot of us were hearing, "don't smoke, don't drink, don't sleep around" and naturally started asking, "Okay, well, that was pretty much my life, so what do I do now?" Where were the do's? And nobody seemed to have much to offer us. Handing out tracts at the mall just didn't seem like the fulness of Christian discipleship...I was just another believer. I believed all the right stuff - that Jesus is the Son of God, died and rose again. I had become a "believer," but I had no idea what it means to be a follower. People had taught me what Christians believe, but no one had told me how Christians live."

I want to be a follower. I need to learn from Him (Matthew 11:28-30).