Full-Value Discipleship
Written By John Wayne Seitzler
Day four of rain and cloud cover on this five-day mountaineering trip in the Coastal Range of B.C., Canada, had me imagining all the avenues through which I could pursue a refund. The promises and slideshows of wildflowers and mountain views were replaced with muddy bogs, wet sleeping bags, and a cold you couldn’t shake. Why was I here? Why did I choose this?
Growing up in the evangelical church with my record Sunday school attendance, record Bible memory, and in the running for the record of hand raising during altar calls - all of my discipleship journey had left me wanting something more in my walk with Christ. Seeing texts like John 10:10, where Jesus promises not just life, but life to the full, it wasn’t adding up to my discipleship experience in the pews of my church. I didn’t know it then, but after receiving a taste on that wind and sleet blasted trekking trip my senior year of high school, I now know that my craving was for encounters with the living God. My appetite was for intimacy with a God who I knew was relentless in moving towards me. I longed for a full-value discipleship journey.
The thread found in Scripture of God using the wilderness to bolster the discipleship of His people can be traced from Genesis to Revelation: Abraham and Isaac’s experience on the mountaintop, Jacob wrestling with God in the wilderness, the nation of Israel becoming the nation of Israel in the wilderness, Moses beholding the glory of God in the cleft of the rock, so on and so forth to Jesus who facilitated over half of his teaching in the outdoors, and modeled a regular rhythm of retreat to be with His Father in the wilderness. The thread of formation in the wilderness is visible throughout the Scriptures, and like a red thread in a white tapestry, it may be that if we choose to follow this highlighted thread that we will find ourselves on the full-value discipleship journey that Christ invites each one of us to participate in.
Have you had an encounter with God in the wilderness? Perhaps it was a moment of stillness and quiet at a local park. Maybe some awe and wonder was stirring in your soul as you skied untracked snow off the flanks of Shuksan? Or a moment in childhood from your midwest church camp that you attended year after year?
What would it look like to make retreating into the wilderness with Christ a regular rhythm? It could be the thread that leads you to the full-value discipleship journey that God offers to each one of us.
