Mike Browning

Tag: Discipleship

  • Not a Warning

    Not a Warning

    At least not the way I always heard it explained.

    Last week I wrote about resentment toward latecomers. How we might get a little jealous of people who lived however they wanted for years longer than we did, and still walked away with the exact same deal we got.

    But think about it. Why would we actually feel jealousy?

    If the life we were living beforehand was so great, why did it ever occur to us that something needed to change? And why, once we figured that out, could we not manage the change ourselves? Lucky for us, somebody else could.

    There’s a passage where Jesus talks about counting the cost before you follow Him. Every explanation I ever got made it sound like a warning label. You’re going to give up a lot, so you’d better be sure before you sign on.

    But like usual, the surface reading and the real one aren’t pointed the same direction.

    Living a worldly life means chasing what the world values. Money, status, whatever version of “made it” you’ve picked out for yourself. Sometimes you actually get some of it. And the second you do, you want more. What you did manage to grab tends to slip through your fingers anyway, one way or another, eventually.

    Once you’ve accepted Jesus, some people respect you for it. Plenty more will look down on you, or at least think you’re a little weird. You’ll probably lose some of your appetite for piling up wealth too, because you know good and well there’s something coming after this where none of it will matter.

    Trade a life that doesn’t satisfy you, and that you can’t hold onto anyway, for one that does and that you can’t lose.

    Sounds like a pretty good deal. Not much of a warning at all.

    So maybe we shouldn’t be jealous of the people who show up later. If anything, we should be kicking ourselves for not showing up sooner.

    P.S.-If you’d like to read through the Bible this year, you can join us at His Word Together.

    No commentary. No telling you what to think. Nothing to buy. Nothing fancy.

    Just steady time in the Word.

    Check it out here.

  • He Came Anyway

    He Came Anyway

    Whatever you’ve straightened up before He arrives, He already knows about.

    There’s a story in the book of Luke about Mary and Martha.

    Martha was serving. Working. Putting on a dinner for Jesus. He was physically in her house and she was trying to take care of Him. Making sure everything was right.

    If we are being honest we’d probably all be doing the same thing. If Jesus were in your house, you’d probably make sure your liquor cabinet was shut and the wrong sort of music wasn’t playing. Then you’d worry about the food. Then whether anything was out of place.

    We forget He already knows about the liquor cabinet. Already knows about the music. Whatever Martha had quietly straightened up before He arrived, He knew about that too. He showed up anyway.

    Her sister Mary was just sitting there listening.

    So Martha went to Jesus and did what any reasonable person would do. She asked Him to tell Mary to get up and help.

    Jesus sided with Mary.

    Not because serving is bad. Not because work is bad. But because Martha had somehow gotten so wrapped up in doing things for Jesus that she’d stopped paying attention to Jesus Himself.

    If you see it once, you start seeing it everywhere.

    Churches where the calendar is full and nobody seems particularly close to God. Businesses where everyone is optimizing the process and nobody’s talking to customers. People who are endlessly productive and quietly miserable.

    The activity becomes a substitute for the thing the activity was supposed to serve.

    It’s an easy trap to fall into because it can feel like progress. And in some cases it is. But sometimes it’s just a socially acceptable way to avoid something harder.

    It’s easier to organize a church dinner than sit quietly with God.

    Easier to volunteer for another project than examine your own heart.

    Easier to do something than receive something.

    That last one is where most people stall out.

    Receiving doesn’t feel like enough. Grace especially. Grace removes your ability to take credit, and most people, if they’re honest, would rather contribute. Would rather earn. Would rather show up with something in hand.

    So they stay busy.

    Martha probably felt like she was doing everything right. She was. By almost any external measure, she was the responsible one.

    Jesus still told her she’d missed the point.

    Worth sitting with longer than most people do.

    P.S. – If you’d like to read through the Bible this year, you can join us at His Word Together.

    No commentary. No telling you what to think. Nothing to buy. Nothing fancy.

    Just steady time in the Word.

    Check it out here.

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  • Truth > Loyalty

    Truth > Loyalty

    Love your family. Don’t hand them veto power over truth.

    Jesus sometimes says things that seem pretty harsh.

    Like this:

    “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.”
    (Luke 14:26)

    People usually rush to soften that.

    “He didn’t really mean hate.”
    “It’s just a figure of speech.”
    “It means love less.”

    All of that may be technically true. But it also misses the point.

    Jesus wasn’t confused. And He wasn’t careless with words.

    This is shock language. On purpose.

    He’s talking about priority, not abandonment.

    In first-century culture, family loyalty was everything. Your family defined your identity, your protection, your future.

    There was no higher authority.

    So Jesus takes the strongest possible human loyalty and says: That doesn’t get veto power over truth.

    If following Him ever comes into conflict with pleasing your family, your answer is already supposed to be decided.

    That doesn’t mean neglecting your family. It doesn’t mean being cruel or dismissive.

    It doesn’t mean going out of your way to create conflict.

    It means nothing outranks truth.

    That’s the part people don’t like.

    We’re comfortable saying we love God.

    We’re less comfortable saying what we’ll do when loyalty costs us something.

    Most people don’t reject truth outright. They let something else sit above it quietly.

    A spouse.
    A parent.
    A child.
    A reputation.
    A job.
    A church.

    Eventually that thing becomes the final filter.

    “Is this true?” turns into “Will this upset them?”

    And once that happens, truth is no longer in charge. It has conditions.

    Jesus is cutting through that before it happens.

    He’s saying: decide now. Before the pressure shows up.

    Because when allegiance is unclear, it always resolves itself under stress.

    And it rarely resolves in favor of truth.

    What He said isn’t harsh when you look at it this way.

    It’s merciful.

    He’s telling you the cost upfront.

    PS- I’ve mentioned a few times that I run another site that offers a free weekly guide to help you get through the Bible in a year.

    You don’t have to buy anything.
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    If you sign up, you’ll get the weekly readings in your email.
    Or don’t sign up and just check the site.

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    If you want to see it, it’s here:

    Check It Out