The highly unpredictable life of being a disciple of Jesus.

When we think of what it means to be a Christian or a disciple of Jesus, chaos, pandemonium, weirdness, and unpredictability are not the words we typically use.  Our view of being a disciple is often times more associated with Sunday services, praise and worship music and motivational sermons to hang in another week.

But let’s take a moment and examine the record and see if being a disciple of Jesus was predictable.  From the perspective of the twelve disciples we see:

“Hey, look there are two naked men charging at us out of cemetery.”

“Wow, I have never seen a herd of hogs stampede like that.”

“Is that a ghost out on the lake?”  “No, it is Jesus going for a walk.”

“More wine?  Sure, this wedding party seems to have an unlimited supply!”

“Where is the teacher of righteousness?”  “He is talking to a woman of ill repute about water.”

“There is a midget falling out of a tree and Jesus just invited Himself and us to dinner.”  

 “Nice pleasant conversation and suddenly, boom!  A guy on a stretcher is coming through the roof.”

“Go fishing He says, catch a fish He says, open its mouth and take out the coin He says.” 

Let’s face it, following Jesus was anything but predictable.  Every time we see Him going to a funeral He messes it up by raising the dead.  Talk about unpredictable.  I want to ask you.  Is your daily walk with Christ predictable?  Is it a rut of Bible reading at the same time and place, the same prayers offered at mealtime?  Do we listen to the same Christian music or teacher on the radio?  I am not suggesting we need to add novelty to our worship service.   It would be too easy to add a ‘surprise’ moment to worship.  That would to some degree be planned.

What I am suggesting is that we listen carefully and try to discern if perhaps our Master is calling us to do something a little out of the ordinary.  If you perceive that prompting from the Master, act upon it.  The worst that can happen is your boring routine will be interrupted and, at best, you might find yourself living the unexpected life of a disciple.