What is God’s general one-word answer to every life problem?

In resisting the temptation to formulise life, for there is no way of neatly ‘boxing’ the vast complexities known to existing happily as a human being, there is one main thing that can be summarised as our purpose.  It’s quite an easy thing to understand; paradoxically hard to apply.

But we’re counselled to take it on board.  There is life if we do; only death if we don’t.

God’s general answer to every life problem is captured in the concept of discipleship.

Jesus said as part of his great commission, that we’re to ‘go and make disciples’ — inevitably God uses that task to make disciples out of us!

If a person comes to me to counsel them about their anger, my answer is discipleship.  That involves gentleness, understanding of trauma, and accountability, for instance.  If they come to me as a pastor for help with their grief, my answer will be discipleship.  The shape of that is as simple as listening, understanding, empathy and patience.  If a couple has a marital problem, chances are there are discipleship opportunities for both.

One Bible verse for Discipleship

Okay.  If you’ve got the task of selecting one biblical principle to support discipleship, which one do you opt for?

For me, it’s Matthew 7:3-5.  Inherent to what God wants to do in our lives is what our Lord wants to do in US.  Nobody is exempt from this, which is greatly encouraging.  We’re all equal as disciples before God as we follow Jesus.

Not only does getting the plank out of our own eye protect us from all sorts of relational damage, it gives us the best opportunity of retaining the agency of our own empowerment.

The moment we blame others — being compelled to address the speck in the other person’s eye — is the moment we lose control over the positive influence we could have had within the relationship.  Redemption in many cases (though not all!) is in the palm of our hands.  Discipleship finds its legs and energy in humility, gratitude, and the abiding in the truth.

Of course, the process of our discipleship doesn’t cater for bad responses by others, but at least we can tap into God’s blessing for our own lives when we take responsibility for our deeds and contributions to life.

Using biblical Joseph as our Mentor

A case in point: biblical Joseph from Genesis 37, 39-50.

We can imagine the young Joseph thinking, “How do I respond to my brothers selling me into slavery, and (later to) being falsely accused of impropriety and imprisoned?”  The biblical passage of about 25 percent of one of the largest books in the Bible doesn’t tell us all we would want to know about Joseph’s life, but we can see it probably more through omission than if the story was embellished.

The Bible doesn’t tell us whether or not Joseph was depressed or bitter for a while or not.  Ultimately, given a period of adjusting to change, Joseph looks to God and does what God requires.  When we look to God and do what God requires of us, we’re Jesus’ disciples.  This is easier to do when things are easy; not so easy when things are tough!

Of course, Joseph had good cause for feeling resentful, as do we when we’re wronged, but Joseph himself counsels us to overcome our complaint, much as most of the lament psalms eventually do.  Like Joseph would have, we must wrestle with our grief to overcome.  We must face it to redeem it.

We’re allowed (and are even supposed) to grieve and to sit in our sackcloth in the ashes for a while — as long as it takes.  But ultimately, life is beyond that place.  At some stage, we must take up Jesus’ invitation and pick up our mat and walk.  Much of the time this is about forgiveness, whether that’s forgiveness of others, ourselves or God.

There’s life in the taking if we resolve to move on having grieved in truth what we’ve lost — grieving our losses is an intrinsic part of discipleship.  So is adapting to change.  Discipleship is about two things that seem diametrically opposed: facing our pain as a means for moving on from beyond it.

~

God’s general answer to every life problem doesn’t suggest that God thinks every problem we have is simple and easy to overcome.  But the overall answer we always end up coming back to is discipleship — what WE can do to adjust and to grow in spite of our circumstances.

~

The greatest test of our discipleship is always the heart of wanting to please and honour God.  If only in every challenging situation we would revert to what God wants.  This is the aim of the follower of Jesus.

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash