1. The Call to Discipleship is the Call to Change

2. The Call to Change
The call to discipleship is the call to change (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).
Change is inherently difficult.
Change always requires human effort. It is not a passive affair (2 Pet. 1:3-11).
Christ is always calling his image-bearers to change (Mark 10: – the story of the rich, young ruler).

3. How might God be calling me to change so that my life and work flourishes ever more deeply?
Try to come up with 5 points of change.
How might God be calling me to change so that my work doesn’t burn me out?
It’s very difficult to change unless we’re sure what God is like.

4. Three Questions
If you were to spend the afternoon with Jesus, what three questions do you think he would ask you?
What three questions would you like to ask Jesus?

5. What is God like? (Repetitio mater studiorum est!)
God is like Jesus.
“He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Jesus speaks of seeing, rather than simply knowing.
How well am I seeing? Perceiving?
Where is my vision blurred? Why is my vision blurred?
What might be blurring my vision? What and who have I been watching? What and who have I been attentive to?
What and who have I been inattentive to?
Attentiveness involves focus.
What am I not seeing that God is asking me to see?

6. “The present generation is the most distracted generation in human history” (Carlos Romani, NY Times).
To see clearly, we have to slow down and quiet down.
“Our adversary the devil majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in muchness and manyness, he will rest satisfied” (Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline).
Hurry sickness (polyphasic activity).
How distracted am I? What distracts me?
My “Trekkie” friend.
What characterizes my “Sabbath”? (Am I taking a day off?)
Rabbi Adlerstein

7. What’s the noise level in my life?
How am I using technology? How is technology using me?
How many times do you check you cell phone a day?
How about an occasional media fast?
What did Jesus do to stay spiritually in shape so that he could carry out his vocation safely, sanely, and powerfully?
What specific practices enabled him, empowered him, to do what his Father asked him to do? (Luke 5:15-16).
What is the narrative about God and about me that is controlling my life?