Discipleship is an individual decision to participate in a unique way in the world. A way that often pulls like hearted folks together to things in communion with one another, but each person must choose to arrive, and arrive ready. Being ready takes discipline, any boy scout can tell you that, but how do you get ready to greet the bridegroom of the kingdom of heaven? You bring oil, you bring energy, you bring confidence, trust and hope.
Confidence that Jesus came to give us an amazing message of grace, almost too good to be true unless you regularly pray and feel the humility and forgiveness that comes from sitting in silence with the Creator of the Universe.
You bring trust that Jesus somehow imparted with his very humanness our ability to engage with the divine. But you must read, consider, and truly ponder the wonder of Christ’s life. You must know him and love him.
You must have hope that no matter how dark the circumstances, no matter how ill-equipped your heart, that Jesus remains with you, whispering his truth to you just under the turbulence. But you must have been that presence for someone else. You must have recognized the pain of another and addressed it honestly, gently. You must give to realize how much you receive.
Janet Stilwell, Associate Pastor Wildwood UMC
