It’s hard sometimes to tell who is a disciple. We don’t act or dress differently. Very likely, someone could watch us a long time and never know we are followers of Jesus.
Fantasy exercise: Imagine that we Christians did mark ourselves. Suppose we wore an “I am a follower of Jesus” uniform of some sort. Of course, uniforms have their drawbacks, too. How would we deal with the attention (hatred? scorn?) we would get from the people of the world? Perhaps it would be easier to put the uniform in the back of the closet and only get it out on Sundays.
In the end, our discipleship is not our self-made disciple uniform that we manufacture out of our own goodness. Discipleship is God at work in us. As Jesus’ disciples, the Spirit is making of us what God would have us be.
This message is adapted from “Discipleship” written by Ted Schroeder in the June 1992 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.