Christ calls us to come and follow. We don’t get the whole picture in one sitting. It’s what we want, but it’s not his way.
Christ bids us come and die. That dying process is brutal because we like how it is in our lives. When we are challenged to let loose of things in our lives we thought were important, we struggle. We balk. We are tempted to walk away.
When we follow Christ, it is a slow walk to maturity. I don’t say a slow walk in maturity. That comes. But it is a process to maturity.
The writer of Hebrews challenges the readers to toss off every hindrance. We don’t often recognize the hindrances in our own lives.
Getting rid of things is challenging, but we often don’t do it properly. We often think of tossing something out and then in our minds there is an “empty space” so to speak. Walking with Christ isn’t about tossing aside what doesn’t belong and that’s finished. It is about filling our lives with Christ and finding that the “valuable” stuff we thought was important gets shoved aside and we realize we were actually sitting in garbage.
The task is to fill our lives with Christ.
Following Christ is to fill our minds with who he is. His character. His goodness. It is to fill our minds with Scripture. It is to fill our minds with incredible spiritual reading as we learn from those who have walked this way.
When our minds begin to fill up with Scripture as we read and meditate, then the spiritual thoughts of giants who have gone before us… we find a slow walk of maturity getting a bit “easier.” And more enjoyable.
Fill your life with thoughts of Christ. Dwell in the gospels. Dwell in the Psalms. Don’t be in a hurry.
Find spiritual giants who have gone on before you and hear their words. Feel their struggles. Share their victories.
Maturity comes. Slowly.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 