Discipleship
Discipleship
Discipleship begins in a person’s life, but it never ends.
This discipleship takes on many forms throughout a person’s life, varying according to the stages of life that he passes through.
The stage of childhood represents the discipleship that believes everything.
It is the discipleship that seeks instruction, asks questions, and wants to know. It accepts everything without argument and acquires many things through imitation.
In the primary and preparatory stages, there is another stage of discipleship that understands and comprehends. In the secondary stage, there is the discipleship that discusses and debates, and stores information after examining it.
As for the university journey, there is another kind of discipleship that participates in research and the preparation of information, relying to some extent on itself.
After the university stage, another stage of discipleship begins—the discipleship of life—when a person enters the midst of practical life.
It is a stage in which neither curricula nor schedules determine examinations. Rather, a person is tested practically, at any time, in anything, without prior preparation or readiness.
And you need to prepare yourselves for the tests of life.
You can also become disciples through the experiences of others, as well as through elders, spiritual guides, and spiritual fathers. You can also become disciples through books.
A person needs to draw from every source of knowledge with wisdom, caution, examination, and the sifting of information.
You need to learn life, and to know how to act, how to deal with people and with superiors, and how to speak: when a person should speak, and how he should speak; when he should be firm, when he should be lenient, when he should be meticulous, when he should discipline, and when he should forgive.
A person also becomes a disciple through experiences and events.
Indeed, the person who loves discipleship learns from everything.
He learns diligence from the ant, and learns faith from the birds that neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. He learns from the mistakes of others, and he learns from their righteous strengths.
Blessed is the one who lives as a disciple throughout his whole life.
He learns more than he teaches others, and increases every day in knowledge and understanding. He possesses the humility by which he accepts instruction from everyone and from everything.
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