So What Are You Learning?

So a couple days ago I was doing a podcast interview about my new little book, and it was going okay. I didn’t feel particular sharp, and most of my answers were kind of flat, but especially the last one. It was an appropriate concluding question, one you might imagine to sunset such an interview. 

“So what is God teaching you right now?”

Um, so much. 

So much that I … I … I apparently don’t know what to say. 

It was a question that I’d normally be most eager to talk about, especially when I’m feeling as good as I do in these days of sunshine and melting snow. But I check-swinged a one-hopper back to the pitcher’s mound, and I’m doing all right about it. My answer had to do with rhythms of work and rest, of learning to slow down, but within minutes of the interview ending I thought of more things I could have said, or maybe should have said.

Over the last few weeks there have been two things standing out from my Bible reading through 2 Kings. One is the pride of Hezekiah, which, I think, is demonstrated in his short-sightedness and negligent stewardship. He neither gave God thanks for his blessings nor sought to protect the blessings for future generations. Put positively, one of the best ways to express gratitude in the present is to ensure that future generations receive the same blessings we have received today (and know we don’t deserve!). Humility, we might say, looks at the longview in love. 

Then there’s also the reforms of Josiah in Chapter 23. Hilkiah, the high priest, had recovered the Book of the Law, and it didn’t take long for Josiah to know things needed to change. But it’s interesting to consider what repentance for Israel must have felt like on the ground. It was destructive. God was sending revival, and it meant Josiah tearing stuff down, burning it to the ground. Who would have guessed that sometimes grace smells like smoke? 

That has been the last couple of weeks, but I think the more crucial thing I’ve been learning over the last few months, and in God’s mercy, has more to do with the rhythms of true discipleship (this is the fuller answer to my reply on work and rest). A few books I’ve recently read have been helpful here, including The Common Rule, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, The Jesus Way, The Spirit of the Disciplines, and On the Road with Saint Augustine. 

Overall, I’m not convinced that we’ve thought critically enough about how incompatible modern life is with truly following Jesus. This place is a nefarious home for those traveling the cruciform road, but sometimes I wonder if we’ve tried to make it too comfortable. Discipleship is going against the grain of society, after all — at least our society today, and most societies throughout history. To be clear, discipleship is in harmony with God’s design for the world, which just means that the degree to which society is postured against faithful discipleship only indicates how badly society is doing wrong. 

To cut to the chase, I think true, going-against-the-grain-of-society discipleship means we’ll both work harder and rest better than anybody else. There’s a lot to unpack with that, and I’m still working on it, but overall, I believe that working hardest and resting best is the peculiar way we witness to the realness of Jesus. And isn’t the realness of Jesus what changes everything? Jesus is a real person! He really came and lived and died, and was raised again on the third day. And he’s really coming back. The life, death, resurrection, and promise of Jesus has accomplished for us both freedom and security. We can work hard because we’re free. We can rest best because we’re secure. Ultimately, in the truest sense, have nothing to prove, and nothing to fear. Because Jesus is real.