By Ron Kuest
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. … Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (John 14:6, Matthew 7:13-14)
“All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.” – Earl Nightingale
Have you ever been in a foreign place without a map? I still have disturbing memories of an experience before smartphones and travel apps. I was doing a training session for a client in New Jersey. It was a hastily arranged trip, and somehow traveling from Seattle to Newark, I misplaced the name of my hotel. It was close to midnight by the time I drove into the city. I panicked. No phone number, no phone booth in sight, and no one to call at that hour. Somehow, randomly driving through the city, I came across what I thought was the name of the hotel. I drove in, and sure enough, that was it. What a feeling of being lost and being found.
Imagine yourself dropped on the outskirts of a strange city. It is ancient, with narrow streets, passageways, and fascinating sights around every corner. The assignment for your “Mission: Impossible” is to work your way through this sometimes confusing labyrinth of paths, streets, and thoroughfares and come to an elaborate temple on the other side where you will find your passionate mission in life. And remember, you have no map! What are your chances of getting lost, giving up, and turning back?
You Are Here
Sometimes, growing in Christ feels like your “Mission: Impossible.” As a disciple, if you have no map, to do it alone means you experience many detours and dead ends. Fortunately, there is a Disciple’s Road Map on the road of life, and it can quickly take anyone to a flag in the map saying, “You are here!”
But that’s not all. The disciple has an intentional discipler who has the same map and has been on these streets before. This friend/spiritual guide will help the disciple navigate the trek, pointing out interesting sights, essential features, and landmarks along the way.
From Story to Mission
The Disciple’s Road Map is a chart showing a progression from story to mission. There are several dimensions to each stage of the journey, highlighting, for example, questions to ask, aha moments to anticipate and assessment tools to gain clarity, spiritual identity, and motivation. And there is a discipling friend as a tour guide.
This adventurous trek, however, isn’t linear — just getting from one side — story — of the ancient and beautiful city to the other side — mission. Moving too quickly, people can miss so much along the way. This journey on the road of life takes time. Perhaps even a lifetime. Let’s look at each station or stage, and let’s make it about us as disciples before we make it about making disciples.
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“We are more than just our story. We have an identity rooted in our story.”
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Story
Our journey begins with story — who we are now because of where and who we’ve been. Story is a curated historical collection of our life experiences. And story is more than our stories. It’s our biography. These events describe what we experienced and how we felt.
Story says who I’ve been.
Our spiritual story tells how God has made His presence known. Establishing story is critical. If a disciple’s spiritual growth foundation and life’s narrative are based on a faulty or incomplete story, then the rest of the journey can be off-center.
Our story usually begins with segments, episodes, and anecdotes triggered by memories. It’s our biography. The main character of this fascinating story is us as we play out the drama of our life and, most importantly, our life in Christ.
Story takes the longest time in the journey.
Here is a key story question: “Where have I been?”
Identity
As we tell our chronological story, it becomes a narrative. Yet, we are more than just our story. We have an identity rooted in our story.
Identity says who I am because of what I’ve done and what has been done to and for me.
In explaining identity, we begin to explain our growing relationship with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Identity includes self-statements about who we authentically know ourselves to be, and who God is in the midst of our story. Through knowing our story, we can begin to discover, define, and own our identity — who we are in God’s great story of humanity because of where we’ve been.
From our story and identity, we develop a conclusion. Keep in mind owning your story can be uncomfortable to relive, yet it must be owned as who you were to form an authentic identity telling who you are because of where you’ve been.
Also, remember that Satan challenges your identity, 24-7-365. The worst lies we tell are the ones we tell ourselves. To compound your problem, Satan is telling the truth about who you’ve been and lies to you about who you are and the role you play in God’s story. A deformed self-identity cripples our ability to see God at work in us. Reading Scripture is essential to counter Satan’s lies and to start to reframe identity.
Here is a key identity question: “Who am I because of where I’ve been?”
Meaning
Identity leads to meaning. If we can now begin to explain who we are based on internal wiring and our history, and in the light of who God is, we can also start to explain why we do the things we do. Answering our whys is what gives us meaning.
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“Having greater insight into our purpose and knowing our spiritual gifts and role better, we become more confident in what God has uniquely called us to be and do.”
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We need to stop and reflect on our life’s journey. Yet, for many of us on our journey of spiritual formation, this is where we start to get stuck, lost, or confused. What kind of meaning or understanding is there in our life experiences? Take your time. You may want to rent a room metaphorically for a while as you sort those stuck areas as best you can in the light of God’s Word and love.
Prayer and reading the Bible are foundational disciplines in deriving meaning, especially to find answers to the questions about hardships: how has the pain been transformed into something meaningful?
Here is a key meaning question: “How has God, at work in my life, prepared me for my future?”
In the second half of our journey, we understand more completely our purpose, answering the question: Why do I exist? Having greater insight into our purpose and knowing our spiritual gifts and role better, we become more confident in what God has uniquely called us to be and do. The first three stages, story, identity, and meaning, are about our past. The next three stops or stages in the disciple’s journey are about our future — how God uses each of us for His purpose, by His calling, living out our mission.
Story, identity, and meaning are about you.
Purpose, calling, and mission are about how you impact the lives of others.
Purpose
Many of us have heard from childhood that God has a plan for our life. Yet, as adults, far too many struggle to explain what that plan is. God has equipped us through wiring and experiences to make us unique. As we have better insight into what paths lead to what ends, we can better start to discern why God created us the way He did. Reflecting on our life experiences, we begin to believe that God created us for a unique purpose. Gaining clarity from personality assessments helps us understand our uniqueness. Spiritual gift and spiritual role assessments further clarify how God has uniquely equipped us. Together, these insights better reveal our purpose.
We now have footing as meaning clarifies our past and purpose and gives direction to our future. On this journey along the road of life, we face two choices. Go back and live in the past in regret and settlement, or take the value of our past and use the wisdom of looking back to step in faith into our future. That is our present choice.
Here is a key purpose question: “God, what is your purpose, your intention, for my life?”
Calling
This stage or station on the disciple’s journey is not as much a call to a specific ministry as it is giving up the life we control for a God-intended life. Calling starts with killing the “old man” — killing it each time that self tries to take dominion.
Keep in mind that the disciple’s journey is not a linear trek from story to mission. It’s life, and life is messy and only semiorganized at best. Life is circular with counter-rotation and forward motion. Life is failing, forgiving, forging, facing, yet inevitably forward.
Calling is a clear sense of what I cannot not do in serving Christ.
The first place to start is acknowledging and believing God calls everyone. We are created for a purpose, not just for salvation but to live a transformed life by blessing others because of salvation. Everyone is called to ministry. Calling is more about surrender than it is about movement. Calling may come in an instant of revelation or, more commonly, in the process of refining your spiritual hearing, telling your story, owning your identity, understanding meaning, and understanding your purpose. When you can do this, you will know, without a doubt, you have submitted to an amazing life in Christ.
Here is a key calling question: Who rules my life: me or Thee?
Mission
Mission is a clear vision of what the Holy Spirit is prompting, encouraging, spurring, and provoking each of us to do as a life-calling.
God didn’t create us as monuments. He created us for His mission.
Mission is never “Someday I’ll…” Our mission lies partly in the present and mainly in the future as it refines and enlarges. It’s our legacy because the work of our mission is never complete. Our calling starts with death to self. Then is often described in terms of spiritual role (apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, teacher). These spiritual gifts, talents, and abilities enable us to accomplish what we now better know is how God has shaped us to fulfill His mission through us. In that role, mission — what we do with our calling — becomes focused, directional, and intentional. At the heart of every mission is a process of intentional discipling. Self-built disciples, too often, are fragile.
Here is a key mission question: “Lord, what is it You plan for me to do? Here am I. Send me.”
Like our life, this disciple’s journey sometimes seems disorganized. Yet no adventurer takes a straight line from one side of an intriguing city (story) to the other (mission). Traveling on the road of life is messy. Each of us has our unique route through our fascinating city of life. Enjoy your road trip as a disciple and as a disciple’s guide while we all move toward mobilizing our mission.
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Ron Kuest is the principal of the Institute for Spiritual Leadership Training, co-author of “Gravity: Seven Essential Truths About Influence, Leadership, and Your Soul,” and originator of the Spiritual Leader Trait Assessment (SLTA). He is a father of three, a grandfather of four, and a husband of 62 years. He has been an executive, entrepreneurial business leader, church elder, coach/mentor to spiritual leaders, and a passionate disciple-maker. Catch his previous Light + Life articles: Reframing Discipleship: Moving Beyond Programs to Relational Intimacy, Reframing Discipleship: Moving from Production to Reproduction, and Reframing Discipleship: Integrating Spiritual Growth and Movement to Mobilize for Mission. He can be reached at rdkuest@comcast.net.
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