This morning while reviewing the mess of my life in prayer, I was given the thought, "It is possible to act perfectly in every circumstance."
Whatever the circumstances and preceding choices and actions, it is nevertheless possible now to make the best of all possible choices and to take the best of all possible actions. I think that's what Jesus did. He lived among the real people and circumstances of His time and made the best of all possible choices and took the best of all possible actions as he moved through His days.
Last night we watched the second part of a Doctor Who story. As the story rushed through its climax towards the happy ending, Rose, The Doctor's companion, thought she had lost him for ever.
The Doctor was deep down a pit on a planet that was drifting into a black hole. But Rose got over her grief and was doing her best to make choices and take actions on the basis of the maxim, "That's what The Doctor would have done."
She wanted to stay on the planet in the hope of reuniting with The Doctor "because that's what he would have done for her". But the team insisted on rescuing her and taking her in the escape rocket. Once on the rocket, making their escape, when it became manifest that the evil spirit from the pit was being carried by one of the team, Rose saved the universe, but put herself and the rest of the team in mortal danger, by shooting out a window so that the demon was sucked out into space to be consumed by the the black hole, "because that's what The Doctor would have done".
And so we have the components of a simple model of discipleship:
- seek to act as the Master would have done, even though it may seem you have lost contact with Him and it may involve extreme self sacrifice,
- keep the hope that it is always possible to make a fresh start in discipleship even though previous choices may have been wrong and the present circumstances look really bad.