Ahh, Spring! This season shouting its blossoming arrival that winter has once more been banished and the way has been cleared for Summer to rev up its engines. It’s these yearly rhythms that start me reminiscing about my halcyon school days, my teachers, my fellow students. School was one of my happy places. Learning, reading, studying, observing, all good! It seemed that every group of students had a few who were super intelligent (think Mensa level), at least one clown (who always got me in trouble because I couldn’t quit laughing when everyone else did), a couple who were painfully shy (the ones I really wanted to care for and encourage) , one smart aleck (whose comeuppances I found sinfully delicious), and the rest somewhere in between, like me.
I think, in reading the Gospels, that the disciples were not so different from me and my classmates. Of the twelve guys chosen, only a few get much airtime. The lesser knowns, the in-betweens, leave room for (my) questions about their personalities, their contributions, their specific gifts and their weaknesses (maybe I’m looking for the one most like me?). Undoubtedly, all of them together became a mostly cohesive unit, listening and learning from Jesus. As well, all of them came to Jesus with set-in-stone, pre-conceived ideas about his mission as the Messiah per the prevailing teaching of the day. These ideas obscured Jesus’ mission which focused not on the menacing foreign occupation of Rome, but on the more deadly foreign occupation of sin in their hearts.
As I write this, I wonder if I have pre-conceived ideas about Jesus’ Lordship in my life, his expectations, his gifts, his ‘good works prepared in advance,’ even his extravagant love. I wonder if any of these things squirreled away in my heart prevent me from hearing him clearly, from fully obeying him. I wonder if some early childhood messages and wounds and misconceptions have created blockages to what I most desire, to what I want most to be true. Maybe I’m just like each of the disciples – messy and flawed and stubborn and fearful and inconsistent – and lavishly loved anyway! Maybe, just maybe, I’m not the only one.
Looking forward to seeing all you lavishly loved disciples tomorrow with all the wonderings you might be bringing to the table. It’s at 10 AM, 2 PM UK. PD
Don graduated from Regent University in 1988 and moved to France for seven years, coming back to the US briefly to marry Sue in 1990. The work in France included working in a Christian School and helping plant a church before returning in 1995. He’s been pastor of Peninsula Vineyard since 1999. He enjoys counseling, especially married couples, traveling back to France (with Sue), reading, doing Sudoku puzzles and sleuthing out good, dark chocolate. Don serves as the senior pastor of the Vineyard Church Peninsula, in Newport News, Virginia.