Debbie and I recently returned from a three week visit with our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. One of the joys during this visit was watching our 14-month old grandson, Zach, learn to walk. When we arrived, he was capable of one or two steps before plopping down on the ground. By the time we left, he was traversing the entire length of the house with ease. I’m not the first person to equate a child learning to walk with the process of spiritual formation. But experiencing it firsthand was absolutely fascinating. And the facets of his learning process find essential similarities in our learning to become like Jesus.

Completely Experienced-Based

As Zach learned to walk, the entire process was experience-based. He didn’t read a book or watch YouTube videos. He imitated what he saw in others by actually doing it.

In our apprenticeship with Jesus, knowledge is valuable. But Dallas Willard defines knowledge as “the capacity to represent a subject matter as it is, on an appropriate basis of thought and experience.” Zach learned to represent his subject matter (walking) on an appropriate basis of thought (wanting to walk and imitating what he saw in others) and experience (practicing until his body learned the proper coordination, balance and motion).

Expectation To Walk

Everyone around Zach expected him to learn to walk. His mommy, daddy and grandparents had no doubt that walking was something he could and should learn. It wasn’t an option. It’s an essential aspect of his ongoing maturing as a human being.

So we would take turns standing Zach on his feet and encouraging and coaxing him to walk to us. This usually ended in him either sitting down, grabbing something to balance himself, or lunging toward someone, expecting them to catch him.

Apprenticeship to Jesus, learning from him to become like him, is the Gospel. It’s the core expectation of the New Testament for anyone who calls themselves a Christian. It’s a lifelong process with many, many moments of false starts and failures. But becoming like Jesus is something that everyone can and should learn. And our faith-communities should become centers of expectation and learning for this process.

Constant Practice with Others

It seemed that whenever Zach was awake, he would grab someone’s hand and try to walk. I was privileged with caring for Zach in the mornings. After feeding him breakfast, he would grab my hand and we would walk all around the house together. Over the three weeks, we spent hours doing this. He gained confidence, strength, and dexterity. Soon, he would let go of my hands to take several steps on his own. Then he would grab my hand we would walk together again.

Likewise, apprenticeship to Jesus requires constant practice with others. We practice with Jesus. He’s always with us and guiding us in our practice. And we practice with other apprentices. We support each other and learn from each other. The key is practice, practice, practice. I’m in a small men’s group and one of our favorite quotes that we recite is from a monk. When the monk was asked “What do you do in the monastery?” he replied, “We fall and we get up, fall and get up, fall and get up again.”

Encouraging Environment

As Zach failed in his attempts to walk, no one was disappointed or berated him. No one yelled at him, shamed him, or used guilt as motivation. Instead, we applauded him, shouted “Yay! Good job, Zach!” and kept encouraging him to try again.

Zach constantly missed the mark. That’s one of the New Testament’s definitions for sin. But missing the mark never became the focus as he learned to walk. Because we all knew that eventually, he would miss the mark less and less. He wanted to walk. So his desire to learn to walk and his constant practice with walking would eventually build new habits in his brain and body that would replace his inability to walk.

Frankly, I can’t say enough about this aspect of the process. I think as apprentices to Jesus, we can obsess over our sins and failures to the point that it hinders our learning process. When speaking to his apprentices as well as to the crowds, Jesus rarely focused on sin. Rather, he focused on envisioning people with God’s kingdom, activity, and goodness and on training people in his lifestyle and practices.

Surely, sin is an important concept. It’s personally and corporately destructive. So Jesus would address how our broken interior dimensions needed to be understood and renovated so that our bodies and relationships could eventually reflect this new Christlike character, thoughts and values. But, Jesus’ focus was on entering and interacting with God’s kingdom, not focusing on our sins.

Joy

The entire process of Zach learning to walk was infused with sheer joy. We were excited by his attempts and his progress. As mentioned before, we clapped and cheered him on. And Zach was filled with joy. Almost every attempt at walking was done with a huge smile on his face. Walking was joyful. And learning to walk was joyful. Neither Zach nor any of us were impatient. We enjoyed the process, the failures, and the successes.

Likewise, apprenticeship to Jesus is joyful. John Mark Comer has a great statement, “The reward of following Jesus is Jesus.” Absolutely! He is my joy!! Just the fact that he invites us to come and learn from him (Matt 11:28-30) is sheer joy! You mean I get to spend my entire eternal, unending life with Jesus, learning from him how to be like him? What?! Yes!!!

Freedom with Boundaries

As Zach become more independent and mobile, he was free to roam most of the house. But his newfound freedom also came with some boundaries. There was a baby gate in the hallway so he wouldn’t wander unseen into the bedrooms. Cupboard doors had to be locked or blocked so he wouldn’t hurt himself with their contents. Electrical plugs needed to be covered. And we installed foam on sharp edges on some of the furniture to protect his head and face. There were many times we had to lead or coax him away from an area he shouldn’t play in. But despite the boundaries, he was free to walk throughout the living space without instruction.

I remember Dallas Willard saying that a healthy parent wouldn’t instruct their child continuously on how to play in the backyard. They would simply be pleased with the child having fun playing within the boundaries established by the parent.

This is what I call creative obedience. As we learn from Jesus how to be like Jesus, he doesn’t give us moment-by-moment instructions on how to live in every specific situation we encounter. In the Gospels, Jesus doesn’t give us a new legal code. Rather, he provides us examples and illustrations of a life in the kingdom that we can learn from him. As we are transformed by Jesus’ lifestyle and practices so that his character, power and faith infuse our mind, will, soul, body, and relationships, we can respond creatively and competently to situations in our lives without direct instructions from God.

Learning to walk with and like Jesus is the joyful and good core of our existence. It’s what our eternal lives are made for. We may stumble and fall. But the life in God’s kingdom we are learning to live far eclipses any temporary failure and prepares us for an eternal destiny in God’s great universe!