Whole Life Discipleship

In my last blog post one of the issues that I commented on was that the Christian faith needs to be moved from the margins back into the centre of life.  Being a follower of Jesus is about the whole of life and not simply what we do on a Sunday or when retreating from the world.  Faith is for the whole of life.

In rural Africa a programme called ‘Farming God’s Way’ (Link - Farming God's Way in Uganda) seeks to draw together good farming practice with Christian discipleship.  In a context where people frequently scratch a living from the land, lives are being transformed in more ways than one as men and women are taught the basics of good agricultural practice from a biblical perspective.  Seeing that faith engages with the whole of their lives is transformational, not just in the fields, but beyond that, to whole communities encountering something of the fullness of life that Jesus offers.

The question for each of us to ask is what is our equivalent of ‘Farming God’s Way’?  What does it mean to conduct business God’s way, to practice in the health service God’s way, to be a neighbour God’s way, to be a student God’s way, to shop God’s way……?

Let me share a small example from my own experience – While I cannot claim to be the chief shopper in my family, I do have occasion to go to the supermarket.  With my items in the trolley (carefully chosen with ethics and fair trade in mind!), I head each time for the same person on the check out, I greet her in her language of origin (all I can do in that language, but a few words go a long way!) and engage in conversation.  We share about our families and our lives in a relatively brief exchange, so as not to make those behind in the queue too irate. It is so easy to simply put the goods on one end of a conveyor belt and pick them up from the other, without even acknowledging the presence of the assistant.  Valuing someone, showing an interest in them, expressing appreciation, are simple expressions of following Jesus.

When the Apostle Paul addressed slaves and masters in his letters, he did not encourage an escapist attitude, but rather one of engagement with Jesus, in the places where they could more naturally have perceived him to be absent; ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord’ (Colossians 3:23).  If we live as though Jesus is absent, then our ears will be closed to hearing his voice, and our lives will be unresponsive to doing his will; if we live life to the full and acknowledge his presence in all that we do, then we will hear him speak in new ways, seek to live as he would have us do, and find surprising opportunities to share his love.