Atomic Discipleship, Part 2

Atomic Discipleship is all about tiny moves that lead to a big faith and a life of abundance.  The narrative of discipleship, the story that we often tell, has a lot to do with big moves yielding great fruit in your life—at least those are perceptions for many. We hear of amazing miracles, the grand sweeping actions of generosity, and huge sacrifices, but here in the real world, we don’t see the ways that our lives can simply match up. Those stories are too big for our tiny little lives! This is the beauty of atomic discipleship.  Atomic discipleship truly looks at the quantum aspects of our lives.  Because truly more than anything Jesus is calling you and me to simply lean in and experience the life that he longs for each of us to have…a life of faith and abundance.

Last week we started with the idea that for us to become disciples of Jesus, we need to understand what we are saying when we talk about what a disciple is.  Too often we use words that appear to have a certain degree of ambiguity when we look at the concrete ways of living out life.

I shared that for our staff team, we developed an understanding that a disciple of Jesus hears his word, follows his example, and trains others in his mission.

It’s not exactly a do what you can when you can type of thing.  Discipleship is an intentional investment, and it is about attending to the small things in the life of faith that lead to big results. 

This is important because it is our mission as disciples of Jesus to make new disciples. We have to be clear about what it means for us to claim this.

Atomic discipleship is about attending to the small things in the life of faith that lead to big results. This is exactly how Jesus talks about faith to his disciples—small things, big results. It almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

You know that if you go to the Grand Canyon, and if you go to the edge and you look down, you will see this little stream of water. That little stream is the Colorado River.  As you sit there and enjoy the beauty of the landscape, you probably don’t see much happening.  After all, it’s just a river in a huge canyon—a Grand Canyon.  But when you get down to it on a very microscopic level, with every moment the stream is wearing at the base of the canyon making it deeper and deeper with every passing second.  But we can’t see all of that happening with the naked eye. However, we can see what it has done over the past 5 million years. I know that when we think about our lives, we aren’t thinking about 5 million years down the road, and we don’t have to. Just because we are talking about little things in our lives doesn’t always mean that little things are insignificant things in our lives.

There is a quote from Frederich Nietzsche, from Beyond Good and Evil, where he says “The essential thing ‘in heaven and earth’ is…that there should be long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has resulted in the long run, something that made life worth living.”   Nietzsche’s point is that the real meaning of life is to find a standard and stick to it.  That is pretty unpopular in a world where what is trending matters most. Eugene Peters, the pastor and author also thought about it this way as well.

So, atomic discipleship isn’t always about the size of the act or devotion but the magnitude of it.  The impact is rarely known by us at the moment—much like the moment in which we cannot see a river wearing through a canyon floor, but over time it becomes more evident in our lives. 

What paths are being worn out in your life?

When I was a young boy growing up as a preacher's kid, sometimes when school was out, before my brother and I could stay at home alone, we would go to the office with my dad.  Oftentimes as dad conducted work, wrote sermons, made calls, etc., we were left to our imagination. Creativity and a whole church building all to ourselves.  One of the things we would do from time to time is crawl under the pews, usually starting at the back of the sanctuary.  It was like a game of submarine, where we would crawl from the back to the front only popping up briefly so as not to be hit by whatever projectile was the torpedo.  You pop up to see where you are and how far you have made it.

This is sort of what life is like when you live life as a disciple of Jesus.  We see the bar that has been set, the standard, and the goal.  You begin with small faithful acts of devotion and service and relationship that you incorporate into your life, and in certain seasons you pop up to see from whence the Lord has brought and to where the Lord is leading you.  You continue the long obedience in the same direction because through this life is where you find meaning, and abundance in Christ. 

Small things in the life of faith lead to big results.  

The story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 tells of one of those small insignificant things in the life of faith.  I realize you may be thinking that multiplying the fish and the loaves is no small feat.  And you are right!   

In verse 9, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.  This boy has a lunch that was packed.  We don’t know who packed it.  We don’t know who baked the loaves or caught the fish.  We don’t know who the boy is or what family he belonged to. 

We just know that he was found to have 5 loaves and 2 fishes.  While Jesus performed the miracle, he did it using what this boy had—a small, meager, insignificant lunch box.

While we focus on the feeding of the multitude, let’s not forget the example that can be found before us: Attending to the small things in the life of faith that lead to big results. Because in our life of faith our ongoing investment in our life with the small acts of daily and ongoing devotion and dedication that over time can help us move toward the standard of Christ in our love for one another and for the Lord. 

We only have to do the small things we can, and Christ turns them into monumental moments of meaning and significance for His Kingdom.

Small things, like making a new friend, praying, reading scripture, packing a lunch for someone who is hungry—the list can go on.  But the key is to start and continue!  When you do continue in that way, you will find that God will blow your life up—bigger than ever! You do not know how or what God will use in your life to make an atomic impact, but your only role is to tend to that long obedience in the same direction.