Pilgrim Soldier

I’ve been reading through Brennan Manning’s The Ragamuffin Gospel over the last few weeks (seems to take an age to read any book at the moment). As I was reading this quote leapt off the page at me:

What makes authentic disciples is not visions, ecstasies, biblical mastery of chapter and verse, or spectacular success in the ministry, but a capacity for faithfulness.

There is quite a bit in the book that I’m not in full agreement with, indeed his rationale for this statement is not a good example of faithfulness, but that doesn’t mean his point is flawed. Authentic discipleship is first and foremost about faithfulness and we forget this at our peril. It is too easy for us to look for the more obvious evidence in people’s lives rather than asking ourselves, is this person faithful to Jesus.