This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

-- Isaiah 66:2b (NIV)

Followship

(Part Two)

Who Follows?

Each of us occupies a place in history where we are watched by others.  We do not normally live our lives alone.  We are part of a community.  We think of ourselves in terms of our life roles within the community.  Psychologists might tell us that these self-image constructs are largely determined or defined by others, as they reflect back to us what they see in us.

Stop for a moment and reflect on your own role.  Father, mother, brother, or sister, are some family roles.  Or, you may be in the occupational role of farmer, baker, doctor, clerk, tradesman, lawyer, or business owner.  Perhaps you are a student or a teacher, a seeker or a pastor.

Whatever your role is, you did not arrive there by mere happenstance.  You made a choice to follow someone or something – you had a model.  Perhaps that was another person who encouraged you as a friend or mentor.  Or, it could have been the discovery of a talent or ability that gave you joy.  It could be that you were captured by an idea, a belief, or an ideology. 

If you are a Christian, at some point in time you decided to follow Jesus.  But, while you understand that Jesus is your model, you don’t really know what that means.  You have read your Bible, heard many sermons, prayed fervently, and even gone to Bible School or Seminary.  You have it all locked up in your head, and intellectually figured out, yet you feel incomplete and wonder how it is all going to come together for you. 

So, you go about your daily routine, competently, methodically, handling your tasks, setting your goals, fixing your problems, until one day you realize just how empty it all seems – almost like you have lost your way.  Life is passing and you wonder about your role.  “Is this how it will be for me?” you think, as adversity or unexpected conditions seem to crowd your idea of who you are, and what you are to be in the world.  You might be asking yourself some version of the question, “When did I go wrong?  God, where are you when I need you?”  Or, “I am doing all the right things, so why is my business dragging?”  Maybe, “I thought this kind of success would bring me satisfaction and joy, so why am I so unsettled and anxious?”

If any of these questions is familiar, may I ask, whom or what you are following?  Are you depending upon yourself, and your own competence and desires?  Are you looking to another role model who has failed you?  I often have had leaders tell me that they have turned everything over to God, they have dedicated their venture to Him, they have done the mechanics of discipleship, but they still wallow in the problem without clarity or solution. 

Sometimes, God uses the events of our lives to get our attention focused in the right direction.  But, if you have a view of God as the armored knight on the white steed, riding to your rescue, you may have an incomplete view of Him.  Here is something for you to chew on.  Freedom cannot come until we truly submit our lives, our treasures, our strength, and our honor to Him.

To come to Him in brokenness, yieldedness, and wholeheartedness is to adopt an attitude of followship.  Leading is all about following, and your life cannot come into focus for you, or for others, as long as you think that you have anything to do with outcomes; as long as you accept the idea that you have multiple roles, rather than just one.

Followship is the second pillar that marks the pathway of what I have called the Kingdom Road.  It is not about a devotional system, or liturgical ritual, or anything that you do.  Nor is it about doing work, or following the direction of another.  Followship is a heart condition, or a state of being, that finds freedom in an attitude of submission and of service to God and to others.  It should not be confused with followership, and it is not the opposite of leadership.

Followship, as I am seeking to use the term, is not primarily focused on the elements of discipleship or the practice of the spiritual disciplines, as important as those are.  Rather, it flows from them; from the character deposits that they make in the heart, which find their way into expressions of cherished values – a lifestyle of modeling Christ.  It is the sweet fragrance of Christ in the life of the believer that involves the practice or position of deference and yieldedness to Him – the strength of the righteous.  It is the courageous walk and the heart’s true response to the irresistible call of Christ.  One role, follower, with many applications.

We will look at Followship again in Part Three.