Saying and Doing

I think it's interesting that Jesus had disciples.  That is, it's interesting that Jesus had disciples and not students.  A student sits in a classroom and listens to a lesson.  These people followed Jesus around.  They tried to listen to what he said, but they also tried to do what he did.  Out there with Jesus, the disciples found that even with the Son of God standing in there midst, they had plenty of times where their faith was tested.  And they had plenty of times when their faith failed.  But they kept on going.  Jesus kept walking, and they kept following.  The disciples didn't have to struggle with acting a certain way on the one day that Jesus would teach, and the rest of the week acting in a different way.  The disciples were out there with Jesus.  Pretty much all the time.

Jesus, while he would teach in the synagogue, also taught elsewhere.  By lakes, on mounts, in cities, etc.  He didn't just go into a building one day a week, give an inspiring half hour message, and then spend the rest of the week preparing his next inspiring message.  He lived the life he was called to live-- all the time, and in the presence of others.  The disciples got to see what he was talking about in action.  They got to try it for themselves.  

Sometimes I think we can be a little too "do it yourself" in church.  We go get some instructions and hang out and hopefully encourage each other one day, and then we have to go figure out how to try and do what we learned, pretty much on our own.  And usually, within a day or two, we don't even remember what it was that we learned.  I don't think that's the pastor's fault.  I also don't think it's exactly our fault.  I think it's the system.

Katherine and I bought a house recently.  This has put me in a situation where I am doing a lot of things that I haven't done before.  What I've found is that the things that I have at least seen done before, or had some part in doing, tend to go better than the things I have had to just read about and then execute.  When we lived in our apartment, I learned a lot by watching my father-in-law do a repair and then trying to do what he did.  While I can say that I have had to read about how to do certain things and then do them, and they came out alright (maybe with only a few extra holes in the wall), it tends to go much better when someone is helping me out. On the other hand, if I sat down and read a book on home maintenance, and didn't do any of the things I read about, I don't think I would end up being very different than I was before I read the book.  I can't say that I can install a sink if all I've done is read about how to install a sink. I'm not going to trust a "pilot" that has merely read all the books about flying.

I think we have to do this faith thing together.  We have to see it in action.  We have to try it, and try it again.