The Engine that Drives Discipleship

Jesus tells a parable about a rich man who pathologically accumulates grain and dies before he has the opportunity to benefit from his work.

The rich man's fault is not immorality.  We are not told if the rich man is morally virtuous or vicious.  The rich man's fault is a lack of wisdom.  The rich man is in denial of life's transience.  He will never be able to benefit from all of the grain that he has accumulated.  He has wasted his life because he has allowed the wrong engine (i.e. accumulation of wealth) to drive him.

The rich man is drive to accumulate out of fear.  And there are plenty of things for the rich man to be afraid of, as there are plenty of things for us to be afraid of.  And there is nothing to keep any of those things from happening.  Even discipleship; being Christian is not a shield from tragedy.  Jesus said that rain falls on both the righteous and unrighteous

Discipleship is a calling to set aside our fear so that we are driven by another engine; being holy.  God needs holiness to be the engine that drives us because there are tasks that God needs us to complete in our time and place.  Our lives can only be driven by one engine.  If our lives are driven by fear we cannot be God's instruments.  We seek the intercession of God's grace not to shield us from the things that we fear, but that we might face our fears, be holy, and be God's instruments so that the Kingdom of God would be revealed on earth as it is in heaven.