Our Discipleship Journey: Part 2نموونە

Up-In-Out

A great tool to help us think about the relationships we’re building on our discipleship journey is the mnemonic Up-In-Out. Up signifies a relationship with our Heavenly Father. In has to do with our spiritual family. Out implies engagement with the world as light in the darkness.

We see the Up-In-Out pattern in Jesus’ life. Throughout the gospels, Jesus is looking up to heaven, thanking His Father, retreating to pray, and declaring that without His Father, He can do nothing. But Jesus’ life wasn’t just one of asceticism, solitude, or withdrawal from other people. He drew on His up relationship to reach out to a dying world. If Jesus hadn’t been passionately committed to in and out relationships, He needn’t have come to Earth at all.

Jesus invested in a core group of people – His in relationships. A Jewish rabbi would typically spend pretty much all his time with his followers, and Jesus’ disciples would’ve caught from His life as much as they were taught by Him. Similarly, the people in your inner circle or immediate spiritual family should be privy to your motivations and some of the inner workings of your relationship with God.

The out of Jesus’ life was His selfless mission to seek and save the lost. We may believe we have a strong up relationship with God, and even a tight in group of people around us, and yet remain insular and unengaged with the world – with no out. Jesus reveals that this is impossible. Jesus made it clear that He didn’t have an exclusively inward focus on His disciples, but that His ultimate desire was for all to know God. An only up life, lived in complete seclusion, can’t reflect a truly right relationship with God.

Our up relationship keeps us mindful of our identity as children of God who do the will of our Father. If our relationship with God isn’t at the centre of our lives, everything else becomes burdensome, and we become judgemental of others. The fullness of God always spills over into a close spiritual family – our in relationships – and beyond that, wherever opportunity presents itself – our out relationships. All three of these movements are inextricably linked. Take our work and home lives as an example. Who we are (up) should naturally overflow into both our home (in) and work (out) environments. Though we might express it more intimately at home, the underlying principles of kindness, honesty, and respect should remain consistent. If we acted with kindness and integrity at home but were dishonest or disrespectful at work, the authenticity of our character would be in question. It suggests that our identity isn’t sure.

Up-In-Out isn’t a formula. Rather, it’s the life of God now flowing through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. May you be mindful of where and how God is at work and intentionally join Him as you look up to Him for help and strength, in to your spiritual family for accountability and support, and out to a world desperate for His grace.