One of my favorite quotes from Dallas Willard over the years is, “Everyone gets an education. Which kind you get is up to you.”

In The Divine Conspiracy, he puts it this way:

You are somebody’s disciple. You learned how to live from somebody else. There are no exceptions to this rule, for human beings are just the kind of creatures that have to learn and keep learning from others how to live. Aristotle remarked that we owe more to our teachers than to our parents, for though our parents gave us life, our teachers taught us the good life.

Who do you follow? Who has “educated” you?

The call to follow Jesus is such a commitment. It is an education. The goal is to find Jesus so beautiful and irresistible that we seek to be in his presence. We want to be guided and instructed by him in every aspect of our lives.

The key is this: stay with him. We must be continual students. Willard likens our occasional methods to someone trying to cash a check on another person’s account. At best, it succeeds only sporadically.

We too often like the “cafeteria plan” in Christianity. And as American Christians, we’ve offered it far too long. The cafeteria plan is like walking through a cafeteria line and taking what you only feel like taking. You load up on desserts and cheeseburgers and leave the peas and carrots. What we find distasteful, we leave.

Jesus isn’t the cafeteria plan. You’re all in or you’re not. We have to follow him completely. Otherwise, we’re trying to cash a check on someone else’s account. It might work from time to time, but at some point in time we get “caught”, in one way or another.

Everyone gets an education. Who gives you your education?