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Is creating “mercy space” the same as hanging out?
The first “landmark” on the discipleship map is LM1: Mercy. The Disciple-Maker (DM) makes room in his life and world to really meet and see people. Also, the DM might be invited by the seeker into their life. That can sound a lot like simply hangout with people. Is it? Or is what we do at that point something different?
The answer is that it depends on how authentically spiritual and relationally intentional the DM and seeker/disciple are when they hangout. You can waste a lot of time just chilling with people with no growth or benefit in either party. Such hanging is simply ratification of the status-quo and least common denominator: the fellowship of consumerism, and mutual admiration society of the affirmation of mediocrity. If simply hanging was discipleship, the Kingdom of God would be bursting at the seams. On the other hand, I’ve invested months in hanging out with someone without anything overtly spiritual happening and it has led to them seeing Jesus and becoming a seriously committed disciple.
The difference is in who the seeker/disciple and the DM (especially) are as they hang. Disciple-making is about being as much as doing. If you go into hanging prepared to be an agent of the King and able to bring the Spirit of Jesus with you into that space, it will be LM1: Mercy space. You will have the perception of the Spirit and will see and respond to the critical potential when it arises and the seeker will feel seen, heard, and met by you, and maybe by God.
Jesus seemed to be hanging around with John the Baptist’s crew in the days before he began to speak and teach about the Kingdom of God (before the Wedding at Cana). But in those times, it wasn’t hidden who he was spiritually and he wasn’t shy about inviting people to spend time with him. When he tells Nathaniel, “Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile,” he is showing the power of seeing people through the Perception of the Spirit, and Nathaniel’s response is the move from doubt to discipleship (Luke 1:35-51).
In the same way, when I first moved to NYC there was a painter on the edge relationships who I felt the Lord wanted to connect to. Artists are generally deeply embedded in relativism and humanism, and while this can add depth and richness to their walk with Jesus, it can also throw up some steep barriers to entering into the Way.
So I heard him say one day how hard it was for him to find live models. So I volunteered to sit for him. He would paint me and we’d talk. I simply focused on being open to him and not hiding any of the God in me (though I made sure not to ever be preachy). One day we went on a field trip to the Met together. As we were walking and looking at exhibits, I could see there was a tremendous insight into God nature that this painter already held, but didn’t know it.
As we came to his favorite painting in the Met, there was Jesus waiting for him.
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