This evening I attended a talk by Megan McKenna at the CHOICE Retreat House in Jurong West. Megan is reknown for being a theologian and a master storyteller, though her actual credentials seem rather elusive. Her talk this evening was regarding “Discipleship” and in the midst of her session, between two stories, she shot question after question at us, her audience.

The first, though general, was a precedent for the others.

1. Who are you, really?

This already set several thoughts flying through my mind. Essentially, I discovered that I didn’t want to (or perhaps I simply couldn’t) put my identity into words. Two years of blog posts such as these are what define me, not a handful of words. Or perhaps I was simply too afraid to really admit who I was, really.

The second was a little more personal.

2. Who is Jesus, to you?

This is personal, because of my keen awareness that, just as I find it hard to live up to the hopes of my parents, my identity of Jesus does not correlate to the way I live my life. As Megan pointed out, if Jesus is “King”, do I truly subject myself to His laws and only His authority in all aspects of my life? Or if Jesus was a “Role Model”, then should we not strive to be more like Him?

She then quoted Mark 8:27-38 from the New International Version Bible:

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

Jesus Predicts His Death

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

And then she asked:

3. Are you a disciple of Christ?

Can I “deny [myself] and take up [my] cross and follow [Jesus]”? And if I can’t give a concrete answer to that… am I even a disciple?

Some days, you just get challenged in ways you never expected.