Discipleship Means Joy

If we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us?

Only Jesus Christ, who bids us to follow Him, knows the journey’s end.
But we know that it will be a road of boundless mercy.

Discipleship means Joy.

— DIETRICH BONHOEFFER —
THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and pastor who was part of the underground resistance against Hitler and the Nazis during World War II. He was executed by hanging at Flossenbürg on April 9, 1945, less than a week before the Allied Forces liberated the concentration camp.

Bonhoeffer's best known work is The Cost of Discipleship. The book had a profound effect on me when I picked it up for the first time back in the late 90s. I had just become a pastor and was searching for what it meant to help people follow Christ. Instead of getting a few good pointers on how to shepherd others, I was cut deeply — the type of cutting that you know is good but it hurts, like a surgeon removing cancer. Bonhoeffer's words were convicting. He challenged me to follow Christ at all costs. And while the book starts off in such a hard hitting way, it leads to something very rewarding. As I die to self and live to Christ, I receiving nothing less than joy. The happiest I have ever been are those times when I am following Jesus the most closely. Or in the words of Christ himself,

"If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. "

LUKE 9:23-24

"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
JOHN 10:10

For more about costly discipleship that leads to lasting joy,
dive into a copy of The Cost of Discipleship.

To learn about the life of Bonhoeffer, start with this brief article.