Discipleship is the obsession to achieve mastery, the mastery that Jesus achieved.
And obsession with achieving mastery is similar to some things and dissimilar to others.
It is not like mastering simple math, simple addition, simple subtraction... where achievement is possible in a fairly binary way... I haven't mastered it... I have mastered it.
Now maybe cycling, maybe running, maybe running the marathon, maybe gymnastics can be mastered. But only if one is satisfied with not achieving ultimate mastery; the where it is not possible to go beyond.
Almost everyone is drawn to the man Jesus. This is not a point of good or bad.
Almost everyone that is drawn to mastery of Jesus, to mastery of basketball with Michael Jordan in mind, Mastery of finance, of investing with Warren Buffett in mind, mastery of evil with Donald Trump in mind... almost, well 9999.9999% of the people drawn to mastery in any of those domains... by mastery means achieving a level of competence Beyond which they don't need to go... Amateur, good, advanced intermediate... spectator.
But in the mind of Michael Jordan, in the soul of Michael Jordan there was no such thing as gaining a level of mastery beyond which he did not need to go.
And that's what defines the michael jordan's of the world, and that's what defines the Jesus of the world. They are so called to achieve ultimate mastery, which is never attainable, completely, that with every breath they are brought to try and gain more mastery and it is that as the end, that difference, is the engine that drives them to the pinnacle that others haven't yet achieved. It is a fundamentally different way of being.
And not one in a million in any domain allows themselves to be pulled into that vortex because it is a vortex that takes over your life.
And mistakenly, instinctively, we creatures of Empire have been taught to fear that obsession, to achieve what Jesus did, because it would be the death of empire. So we have been carefully conditioned to think that to be insanity.
For our very lives... no I'm not gonna be taken over by that! We don't say that to ourselves, but our empire shaped nervous system has that reaction.
And if Michael Jordan says I'm gonna turn my life over to that obsession, mohammad Ali says you bet I'm gonna turn my life over to that obsession, and Jesus says you bet I'm gonna turn my life over to that obsession ... creator!
And all but one in a 1 million have a reflexive instinctive empire programmed fear of doing that that they never throw off.
They convince themselves intellectually that they want to throw it off, but their nervous system... they never reshape, retrain, rehabilitate, their nervous system to that point where they can actually do so.
And really maybe what discipleship, becoming like the master means is exactly that. The disciple is one that no credit to themselves though it may have been extensive work of reshaping, rehabbing their nervous system... regains that humanity... and maybe that is the essence of humanity.
Humanity is so much a part of creation, it is so much the co-creator, that it understands that it's very nature is that constant striving to help the whole of creation that's sick and diseased and suffering... for itself, for its own relief of suffering.
And like all healthy tissue it mobilizes to bring full health to the system.
Holy smokes.
And for the first time maybe James is understanding Jesus saying, if you keep my words, if you love me, you will do the work that I do, and you will do greater works than these.
Just as the one called not to copy Michael Jordan, not to mimic Michael Jordan, but to be Michael Jordan is called to the obsessive spirit of Michael Jordan. The agent of constant creation, of the next higher level of mastery, the next higher level of competence, incessantly....
And I suppose this is the difference between the true artist that Mihalyi Czickmihaly spoke about. Unlike the other all but one in a million artist, they are returned to their co-creator hood, it is not the painting, it is not the achievement of a painting they are drawn to. What they are about is being a co-creator, and that infinite task master, brings them into infinite, and unending growth, creatorhood.
Some forward some backward probably with a forward direction. But constantly in that obsessive vortex of creator.
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