Choosing to Learn from Jesus

“The time has come,” [Jesus] said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)

In John 10:10, we find Jesus’ assurance that He has come that we “…may have life and have it to the full.” But sometimes life does not feel very full as we follow Jesus. That may be because we are missing part of what it means to follow Jesus and be His disciple.

The word “disciple” means to be a learner, a student, or an apprentice, and being a disciple of Jesus means learning from Him and patterning our lives after His. It starts with trusting in Jesus above all else, for only Jesus is God the Son who came into this world to save us, only Jesus is going to come to this world to make us and all things right, only Jesus is going to raise us from the dead and restore our dusty, old bodies so that we will never die, and only Jesus can guide us through all the ups and downs of life.

With Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we are able to look at special moments that happen in life as opportunities to learn from Jesus. The Greeks had two words for time. For the linear passage of time, they used the word chronos. We get our English words chronology and chronometer from chronos. But kairos was the Greek word that was used to describe special, perhaps life-changing, moments in time.

When Jesus said, “The time has come” in Mark 1:15, He meant that a kairos moment—a special, life-changing event—has happened. Through Jesus, the kingdom of God is available to us now. That means that life with Jesus under God’s rule and reign with all its fullness is available to us right now. And we grow in living that life with Jesus through a cycle of repenting and believing.

Repenting is simply to have a change of heart and mind. When a life-changing event happens, we can take a step back and observe what happened and what our thoughts, feelings and actions were before, during and after that event. We can reflect on what was going on for us during that event and we can discuss the event with others and gain wisdom and perspective from them.

Believing in one sense simply means to trust. But in a broader sense, it means taking substantive action based on what we believe to be true. We begin by making a plan with the goal of having a better outcome next time. We share that plan with others and invite them to hold us to account. Then we act on our plan and carry it out.

By remembering the cycle and choosing to learn from Jesus through a cycle of repenting and believing, we find that life is a series of circular cycles, like a slinky, and as we use the repent-believe cycle to learn from the kairos moments in our lives, we find that we are pulled along by Jesus into a life that is richer, fuller and far more meaningful than any life we could ever build for ourself on our own.

Dear Jesus, give me eyes to see the Kairos moments that happen in my life as opportunities to learn from You. Help me to grow in love for You and for the people You have placed around me. Amen.