Do you have one thing you are known for? Are you the funny guy in the group? Are you the one who always knows the right song for the video your friends are making? Are you the problem-solver, the good-listener, the smart-one, the flighty-one, the I’ll-try-anything-once one? In my youth group, I was one of the funny guys who would eat just about anything that would make the others squirm.
This week I was blessed to start a Disciple Makers class with a handful of men in our church. We are roughly using the book Critical Mass, by Shane Sanders as we look at how to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). We began the class by laying a foundation and identifying the mission, and we try to strip ideas and goals down to the foundational levels. If the Lord weighs our motives (Proverbs 16:2), what is our motivation – what is our goal?
I asked the class a question that Sanders asks in his book – a question that others before him have asked. In one word, what is the goal of the Christian life? The answer Sanders gives is the same answer on older man in our class quickly offered – to be Christlike.
As Christ-ians or ‘little Christs’, we should resemble our Lord. Romans 8:29 tells us we are to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. This is my one thing – this is the only thing. If I can become more Christlike, then the other ‘things’ in my life will fall in line. I will be a serving husband, just as Christ serves the church. I will be a loving father, just as God is the perfect Heavenly Father. I will be an obedient and honoring son, just as Jesus submitted to the Father’s will. And I will become a disciple maker.
To be a Disciple Maker, I must first become a Disciple. I must follow Jesus each day, all day. If the entirety of my life – my relationship with my wife and children, my work ethic, my patience in the line at Walmart, the way I talk to my friends, etc. – if it is all based on the goal of becoming more like Jesus, then my life will more closely resemble my Savior each day.
What is your one thing? What are you hoping to accomplish with your time today?