Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you, and you with me. -Rev. 3:20

When I was a child, a dominant metaphor of beginning the Christian life was “asking Jesus into your heart.” At the conclusion of every Sunday School class, Good News Club meetings, and youth events, we were asked to bow our heads and close our eyes for prayer. The leader would always include a challenge to raise your hand and then silently repeat a prayer of invitation if you wanted to ask Jesus in your heart.

I raised my hand and said this prayer of invitation many times in my childhood and adolescence. The church taught that one needed to take this action only once to be saved. I repeated the process lots of time because I wasn’t always sure Jesus actually came in. I thought it should feel more miraculous afterward. I thought I should behave more perfectly afterward. I was afraid that somehow I had inadvertently blocked the door or wasn’t sincere enough. Truthfully, while I found the possibility of an intimate relationship with Jesus compelling, I was equally terrified of the consequences (hellfire) if I didn’t do it right.

As an adult, I have found the metaphor of “journey” to be much more helpful in understanding my relationship with God through Christ. Journey is a metaphor which created compassion for the twists and turns of my life. It gave me a lens of grace. Journey is a metaphor I use a lot. In fact, I always sign my columns and letters using that metaphor: “Walking with you as we follow Jesus.”

Last summer, I was “shopping” for reading material to down load to my new Kindle (a type of electron book made by Amazon that allows you to download various reading material electronically and read it on a type of computer screen). I found a title familiar to me in childhood by Robert Boyd Munger called “My Heart – Christ’s Home: A Story for Old and Young.” It was first published by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship in 1954 before I was born. The most recent edition was published in 1992.

I downloaded it partly out of nostalgia. And, I wanted to reconsider the heart metaphor for my own discipleship. The author describes his conversion and then narrates the process of Christian growth. The reader listens and watches the author give Jesus a tour of the new home. As they move together from room to room, certain opportunities for change become evident.

Much of the rhetoric reflects a much more private and narrowly moralistic understanding of the Christian life than is typical for the United Methodist understanding of faithful discipleship. It relies a little too much on shame for my sensibilities. Yet it stimulated my thinking about the potential power of this metaphor as I reflection upon the ways that conviction can lead to healing, transformation and a more powerful, purpose-centered life.

I’m telling you all of this so that you will understand the background of our worship theme for Lent: “My Heart – Christ’s Home: A Blueprint for Discipleship.”

I hope that you will be intentional about fully and regularly participating in worship this season. Pray for the courage to take these intentional, challenging and more intimate steps in your own spiritual life. Be open to what God will do in you and through you as you as you consider this opportunity to invite Christ to live in your own heart.

Walking with you as we follow Jesus,
Debra