I’m still thinking about what Bill Wellons said Sunday at Fellowship Bible Church. He said that discipleship is not about having to spend time with God, but getting to spend time with God. Growing and maturing in the faith shouldn’t be things we have to do, but things we get to do.

If you’re in a religion with checklists and rules, then it’s all about what you have to do. When you’re in a relationship with the risen Christ, it becomes all about all about passion and “getting to” instead of “having to”. If I find myself feeling like I have to pray or read my Bible, that means it’s time for a gut check. Ususally, such introspection leads to the revelation that I’ve lost my first love and made it into following laws instead.

The world needs to see us not following another religion with rules and regulations and somber faces, but they need to see us as people who have fallen in love with Jesus and would give anything to follow Him wherever He leads. They don’t need to see good morals or fine ethics or a list of what not to do, but they need to see us in love with God and us being loved by God.

We as humans have an amazing capacity for self-justification. We can find reasons (more like excuses) for why what’s wrong for others is right for us to do (or say or think). If we have to spend so much time and energy justifying what we do, maybe we should simply not do it. Or maybe we could get so caught up in the privilege of following Jesus that these things we feel we need to justify won’t even matter.

As trite as it sound, love is the answer. That is, Christ’s love expressed on the Cross and poured out into our hearts, is the only solution to every problem in the world. And we get to be a part of spreading that love. We get to be His hands and feet. We get to be vessels through which God’s transforming power can radically change the world around us. It’s not a duty, but a delight. Or as John Piper might say, delight is our duty.

As always, I believe. Help my unbelief.