Downsizing Sin

Dallas Willard believes discipleship is not as hard we make it.

Obeying Jesus requires, it sometimes seems, Aristotelian wisdom and Herculean strength. Other times, it's pretty simple.

I was thoughtlessly helping myself to a second portion of a casserole filled with three of the essential food groups (fat, salt, and cholesterol) when my son spoke up. He'd heard me say how much I wanted to shed 40 pounds and how, again, I was going to start a diet.

"Dad," Luke said, "I don't think you want to do that."

"You're right," I said and put down the spoon. A skirmish with gluttony was simply and quietly defeated—without drama or heroic will power.

In The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God (HarperSanFrancisco, 1998), Dallas Willard argues that the life of discipleship can be as simple as that: understanding what Jesus wants and then simply deciding to do it. If pastors come to grips with this simple truth, they will not only be better disciples themselves, ...