Articles
Trust the Process
Almost two years ago, my brother-in-law, after a period of persistent encouragement, talked me into going to a particular weekend men's retreat he had experienced. The focus of the retreat was building men up and equipping them to face the different challenges life brings. He had been before and was convinced that I too, would benefit from it. As the weekend approached, he offered to take me to the retreat site and I agreed. Just before he dropped me off he said, "Trust the process." Those words didn't sound very positive at the time, but they stuck with me because I trusted the person that said them. He was encouraging me so that I would allow myself to focus on each part of the weekend and not get overwhelmed. I did "trust the process" and the retreat was a success for me.
When we commit to becoming a disciple of Christ, there is a transformation that must take place within our lives. This process is not a fast one but rather ongoing and ever changing for as long as we devote ourselves to becoming more and more like our master each and every day. Discipleship does not happen without relationship. True discipleship takes time and an investment in the one whom is being discipled. When we look at the process that Jesus took with his disciples, it took him approximately three years from start to finish for his disciples to be ready for the mission that they were about to embark. These men spent day and night in a relationship with Jesus learning to continue God's plan for redemption through the message of his one and only Son. When we look at scripture we see that Jesus' men were "unschooled and ordinary men" yet they were entrusted with God's most precious Kingdom. At some point, the disciples had to become the ones that were discipling. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus told his disciples to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
When we consider the process of becoming a disciple of Christ, we have to start with what it takes to become a disciple. It begins with the teaching that Christ gave to his disciples, which they passed on to us. They trusted the process because they trusted their teacher…Do you?
