Who Is The Follower

Who is The Follo­wer?   Wow!   That is a loa­ded ques­tion.  Do you got a few hours?

First the sim­ple stuff.  Stephen has been married for twenty years, to the same woman, has three won­der­ful boys, two dogs, and two cats.  He has lived in the St Louis metro area for six years with a brief stint in Phoe­nix, twice living in the repu­blic of Texas, but spent his childhood in and around Tulsa.

Now the not-so-simple stuff.  Stephen is the son of a pas­tor, which may explain a lot.  He grew up in all-things-church.  He has spent much of his life invol­ved in the acti­vi­ties of the church…the good, the bad, and the ugly.  That is until that last few years.  But let’s not get ahead of our­sel­ves here…

Seve­ral years back, a jour­ney was under­ta­ken.  It was like hit­ting a fork in the road.  A big fork.  A drop off the can­yon wall.  As such, radi­cal change has taken over his life.  It star­ted with a cou­ple books by John Eldredge, (Wild at Heart and Waking the Dead), follo­wed by a wee­kend men’s Boot Camp in Colo­rado Roc­kies hos­ted by Eldredge.  The wheels were set in motion for life-change and those wheels keep on turning.

Con­fron­ted with the fact that he lived as a “Poser”, he was shoc­ked to rea­lize his Chris­tia­nity had been redu­ced to the prin­ci­ple of God is good, You are Bad, Try Har­der.  This poser life was bound up in lega­lism, rules, rights and wrongs…generally speaking…Performance Chris­tia­nity… whe­reby one per­forms to gain, secure and main­tain God’s favor.  An one­rous task that he fai­led at mise­rably.  All the while, the outside world thought he was a model Chris­tian (uh, Poser)…involved in lea­dership, teaching clas­ses, musi­cian, audio guy, occa­sio­nal preacher, etc.  It loo­ked won­der­ful to the naked eye but he was dying inside.

This is one scre­wed up way of living life but that fate­ful trip to Colo­rado became the snow­ball set loose at the top of the moun­tain.  Life had devol­ved into “sin mana­ge­ment” more than “kno­wing God”.  Life was focu­sed on doing the right thing, a.ka. not sin­ning, but fai­lure was more pre­va­lent than righ­teous living.    It was a rude awa­ke­ning to rea­lize that his efforts were in vain, and that the per­for­ming msut stop.  God loved The Follo­wer just as he was: frus­tra­ted, fla­wed, stuck in his sins, yet pos­ses­sing a heart to know God bet­ter and to be transformed…to be free.

Free­dom begin to sur­face with the unders­tan­ding that God knows The Follo­wer bet­ter than he knew him­self, and that He knows the deep dark sec­rets in his heart, and He knows the bro­ken and woun­ded pla­ces in his heart, and that He knows when The Follo­wer was going to sin before he actually sin­ned, and knows how that woun­ded hearts leads one to make those deci­sions to sin….and in the midst of it all…He still loves and accepts The Follo­wer.  That is truly libe­ra­ting.  Scrip­ture says of Jesus, “While we were yet sin­ners, Christ died for us.”  Talk about an ama­zing reve­la­tion to the soul of a Christian.

Lear­ning to live loved became the prio­rity.  The focus chan­ged.  No lon­ger is the day filled with “sin mana­ge­ment” but about rela­tionship and re-learning “who God is”.   In the midst of this Coun­ter­Point, the wounds of the heart began heal and the habi­tual, see­mingly insur­moun­ta­ble sins began to sub­side.  Now this is not meant to sound easy, because it was not.  It remains a cha­llenge.  It takes effort, it takes honesty, and it takes effort….did he say that “it takes effort” already?

First, was this power­ful the reve­la­tion of God’s grace and Uncon­di­tio­nal Accep­tance.

Second, came the impor­tance of The Brotherhood of Men.

It star­ted with one guy (Truly Free) approaching The Follo­wer about get­ting together over cof­fee for the pur­pose of “accoun­ta­bi­lity” (that was all the rage at the time for men’s ministry).  Admit­tedly it took seve­ral months before The Follo­wer was cer­tain that Truly Free could be trus­ted but he taking that step which led to a friendship that is much more than sim­ple accoun­ta­bi­lity.  It is a true and honest rela­tionship.  With these two points in mind, The Follo­wer lear­ned to accept him­self as he is today in the comor­ta­ble know­ledge that Christ is the author and finisher of his faith.  And yes, Truly Free is a part­ner in all things CounterPoint.

So much more to say and the jour­ney is still unfol­ding.  Please return to con­ti­nue sha­ring in this journey.

Upda­ted 11Jun2010.