I am a lifelong learner. I am constantly studying, reflecting, and trying to grow. One idea that has shaped me is the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A fixed mindset tends toward binary thinking: success or failure, good or bad, finished or unfinished. A growth mindset recognizes that even failure can become an opportunity to learn, grow, and fail forward.

That is one of the most powerful parts of the 12 Step recovery process.

The final step challenges you to carry what you have learned to others who need help. Which means, strangely enough, Step 12 can never really be completed. There will always be someone who needs your help. Recovery therefore becomes a never-ending movement of growing and going, one day at a time.

Healing comes through helping.

The same is true of discipleship.

We sometimes imagine discipleship differently. We think discipleship is all the churchy stuff that teaches us what it means to follow Jesus, while evangelism is a special gift given to a few people who take the message to others.

But Jesus shows us something different. Discipleship is the process of making disciples who make disciples.

In Mark 5, Jesus encounters a man whose life has completely fallen apart. He lives among the tombs, isolated from his community and tormented by forces beyond his control. Jesus heals him, and when it is time for Jesus to leave, the man understandably begs to go with him.

Jesus says no.

Instead, Jesus tells him, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.”

So the man goes throughout the Decapolis telling people what Jesus has done for him.

Think about that.

Jesus does not send him to seminary. He does not require a probationary period to make sure he has everything figured out. Jesus takes a man whose life was shattered only moments earlier and sends him home with a story.

Tell them what the Lord has done for you.

That is discipleship.

You do not have to have all the answers. You do not have to become an expert. You do not even have to have changed out of your tattered rags. You simply begin by telling people what the Lord has done for you.

Jesus gives this man a purpose, someone to love, and a story to tell.

And Jesus does the same with us.

Discipleship does not end with Jesus healing us. Jesus heals us, transforms us, and then sends us.

So think about the places you will go this week. Your office. Your classroom. Your neighborhood. Your dinner table. You will go places others will never go, have conversations others will never have, and encounter people others may never meet.

You do not need to fix them.

Simply show up. Love them. And when the opportunity comes, tell them what the Lord has done for you.