Believer or a follower?

A few days ago during lunch, I asked a brother the difference between a follower and a disciple of Christ. To be honest, I am quite sarcastic as I asked him. I knew the answer already. However, I want to see from his point of view. If there is a weakness in me, it is fact that I made a judgment too quickly.

He said that a Christian should be both. Sadly, we are living in a culture, church culture, where some people are believer and not yet follower.

I was just viewing a youtube video by Shane Claiborne. He is one of the founder of the Simple Way. He asked this question, what does it mean to follow Christ? What if all the things Jesus taught in the Bible is true? How does the world look like if we extend His Kingdom?

Before going into a topic that seemingly lead to a theological or intellectual discussion...he shared that he witness Jesus through being with the poor. Being their friend. Being Jesus in their eyes. Sharing the burden and hearing the pain.

And I had a similar experience. If you follow my blog, you will see that numerous times I discuss about Kingdom of God. I use it so frequent that those around me knows I even have an acronym for it. KoG.

What's KoG? After all Jesus talks about it all the time. Kingdom of God is like this. Kingdom of God is near. Kingdom of God is like that. If I am to follow Him, I better know what that means.

I read it in the Scripture. Sermon on the mount. It is a beautiful vision of what Kingdom of God is like. It is love. And I love it. It is such a perfect vision.

And in most of us, we want this world to fill with this love. And yet sometimes it is discouraging when the messiness of the world seem so huge. And we are so little. Almost helpless. Like watching an accident about to happen without able to stop it.

....despite that...there is a part of me that I still believe that our actions do matter. That it is possible to follow Jesus in 2009. That what Jesus said, to feed the hungry, to defend the weak, to not conform to the world, still holds truth.

It is through being Jesus in a brief moment to those who are in need. To sit and share a meal with those who are homeless. To be a friend. To get to know them. That I witness Kingdom of God in action.

At the end of the video, Shane said "met people who are had incredible story. That live in and out of homelessness. That really brought the Gospel to life for me."

I do not have a lot of answers. I have a lot of questions. I have more desire. Desire to see what it really means to be a follower of Christ. And to learn to follow is not find in a book. It is often revealed through broken lives and hopeless situations.