Is there life?

I love these words from the message translation of Matthew 9:

Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives.

Then follows an account of Jesus calling and commissioning the disciples.

Its a call to mission and discipleship.

How often do we get bogged down, though, in things that straitjacket the kingdom, that stifle the Spirit and squeeze the life out of any enthusiasm there might ever have been? How often is compassion sidelined in the interests of proper procedure? We don't need a load of paraphernalia. The gospel goes on: You don't need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment.

Jesus makes it sound easy. But maybe that's because on one level it is. It's us who put in all the stumbling blocks and barriers to simply being disciples and sharing the good news.

There is life in becoming what we profess to believe.