When I was seven, my mother began letting me ride my bike to my best friend’s house. She lived three blocks up, one block over, and I remember feeling so grown up riding to her house. On one trip, I turned into her driveway going too quickly and slid on the gravel. I wiped out and bloodied my palms and knees. A man saw me and jumped from his car to check on me. Like any child of the 80s I did what I had been trained to do at that moment: screamed at the top of my lungs, “Stranger! Stranger!”
Why Growth Requires Risk
I’m sure when my mother agreed that I was capable of making this ride it was a scary leap of faith. I have anxiety letting my kids run three houses over to play with their friends and I can see them making the journey. There has to be risk for the reward of feeling capable. My mother knew I could ride my bike well because we had taken longer rides together. She knew she had taught me to handle myself well and to avoid talking to strangers. However, there was no way to know for sure that I was capable without allowing me to ride alone.
When we are raising up the next generation, there comes a moment where we have to send them out. They must stand on their own. Discipleship doesn’t come with a step-by-step guide or a certificate of completion. When we see Jesus sending out the Twelve and the seventy-two, we are only three chapters beyond when he called them. They aren’t at the end of their training when Jesus sends them. Do we feel tempted to keep them protected from mistakes or dismissals by not encouraging them early and often to find someone to pour into?
Luke 9:1-6
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.
How Jesus Prepared His Disciples for Ministry
At this point, the training regimen that the Twelve had been put through is being with Jesus. They’ve seen him teach, heal, do miracles, and they’ve heard him cast his vision to them with the parable of the sower. As he is sending them he gives them authority, and guidance and then they are sent.
When we hold our next generation too tightly, we are preventing them from being hurt or hurting others. But we are also not allowing them to feel what it’s like to be used by God. We are potentially preventing them from living out Jesus’ method and seeing how it works.
Obviously, there’s a balance here: my mom would have been irresponsible to send a younger me out on the same ride. She had lived life with me and knew the lessons were all in place. Jesus had demonstrated the mission to his disciples and knew they were capable. Did I fall and hurt myself? Yes. But that didn’t void my ability; it gave my mom new lessons to build me up. It taught me caution on unstable surfaces and that not all strangers are harmful.
Learning Through Hands-On Discipleship
When the Twelve return, they tell Jesus all they had done. You and I never get that information. Did it go well for them? Did they come back with scraped palms and questions? Did they come back asking for more parables, for better illustrations? All we have is verse six:
So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.
Jesus sent them out when he was still with them, knowing the experience was worth it. He knew that if they came back with questions or exposed weaknesses, he would be there to help build them up. The disciples came back with a deeper understanding of what it meant to share the good news. They could see what they needed to learn. They didn’t know that at some point they would have to share the gospel without being able to return to the Teacher.
Equipping Others to Depend on the Holy Spirit
Our kids and disciples won’t always have access to us. Encouraging them to launch early teaches them that the power and authority of Jesus is theirs through the Holy Spirit.
A year or so later, my mom, brother and I had taken the longer bike ride to the city park. On our way back home, my brother’s blanket got wrapped into the spokes of my mother’s bicycle. She couldn’t get the blanket out; she couldn’t push the bike forward or keep riding. We were about half a mile from home, and we were stuck. My mother told me to ride directly home and get my dad. She knew I was capable of the longer, more complex ride because she had sent me out when the stakes weren’t as high.
Who in your life is ready to be sent out? Are you willing to trust God enough to let them go?
If you would like to hear more on this topic, check out the podcast post that inspired this blog here.
