Walking With Jesus in the Slow Lane | Guest Post by A.J. Swoboda
This month’s guest post is written by Bible and Theology professor and fellow Substack writer
. I was first introduced to A.J.’s work through his award-winning book Subversive Sabbath in 2018. It was the first significant teaching on Sabbath I had encountered and God brought it to me at a time in my life when chronic health issues were forcing me to take an extended Sabbath I would have gladly opted out of. I pray his words on slow discipleship here are an encouragement to you.
I’ve recently crossed a new threshold in my life: increasingly, the people I follow, read, and am pastored by are younger than I am. Not that I’m that old, but approaching my mid-40s has meant that those in positions of influence in my life are often younger than I am. This has become a profound gift of midlife. I have so much to learn from those who come after me. But it has also been difficult. For those who experience this, the experience can expose a flourishing pride that resents being led or instructed by those younger than ourselves. Having pastored people older than myself, I’ve experienced the painful reality of older individuals walking out of the room when they see that the one at the pulpit isn’t where they are.
At one point this year, it dawned on me that a kind of arrogance was bubbling up in my own heart when I’d listen to a preacher half my age say things I’d never say at this stage of life. Boy, they just don’t have the knowledge I have. It should be me up there. I could do this so much better. All of this, of course, is nothing more than flesh—the deep-seated arrogance that comes with placing faith in age and experience more than in Christ and his work. Few things expose our own immaturity as much as being submitted to the teaching of someone less down the road than I. Do these experiences inflame us with resentment and pride? Or do we learn to bear with the “failings of the weak,” (Rom 15:1) patiently letting the young stand up, fall down, and repeat the process over and over again?
I’ve written this down in my journal many times: A.J., you’re as mature as your capacity to sit through a bad sermon and yet still find joy in Christ.
One of the ways that God grows us is to put us in places that we perceive may slow us down. In God’s economy, being sovereignly placed in environments that challenge us, perturb, and even frustrate us, can have the power to lead us into a greater maturity, depth, and formation. Living in community, of being in an intergenerational church where the young and the old walk together, is one of these divine patterns. Slowing down gives us the room we need to be formed.
In several key instances, Jesus is described as waking up early—before even his own disciples—in the pre-bustling hours of the day to find the space needed for intimate times of prayer with his Father. Jesus “went off to solitary places” to enter into conversation with God (Mk. 1:35). The disciples who recorded these experiences noted that he was often inaccessible and difficult to find. Out of these times of prayer, Jesus no doubt received his marching orders for what was to come. The space that Jesus so willingly created structured his ministry in hidden ways we will never fully understand.
Similarly, the narrative of the book of Acts gives an account of the travel itineraries of Paul and his companions as they preached the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. Finding margin structured Paul’s life just as it did Jesus’. After his conversion to Christ in Acts 9, he was left blinded and went without eating or drinking for three days—likely sitting in solitude as he reflected on what had just happened to him (Acts 9:8-9). He even mentions going to the arid and obscure land of Arabia for a season immediately after his dramatic experience with Jesus (Gal. 1:17-18). Later, on one of his final missionary journeys, Luke tells us that as he embarked on a journey to Assos from Troas by boat, Paul declined to accompany him. Rather than traveling by ship, Paul made the decision to go on the journey “by foot” (v. 13). This nearly 25-mile, rugged, isolated journey would have provided Paul with much space to reflect and be with God.
What did Paul hear or learn on that walk ‘by foot’? He must have had some encounter or revelation, given that in the next two verses of Acts 20, we are told he makes the fateful decision to say goodbye to the Ephesian elders before his journey to Rome, where he would die. Did he hear from God on this journey by foot? It seems he did. Paul’s missionary journeys were filled with countless supernatural and awe-inspiring events—but such events were often structured by long, protracted periods of slow travel and obscure spaces. “We made slow headway” (Acts 20:7) and “we moved...with difficulty” (v. 8) could be seen as the thesis statement of these journeys. Indeed, the Christian life has also been described as a journey. In Hebrew, it is called a derek—a way, road, or journey.1 In Greek, it is called the hodos—the way, door, or path.2 But it often turns out to be a slow journey.
Scripture is replete with stories and instances in which key individuals in the biblical narrative hear from—or receive direction from—God when they find themselves in a place of quiet, obscurity, or impediment. God spoke to Moses through the burning bush while he cared for flocks in the quiet region around Midian in the early chapters of Exodus. After escaping Jezebel’s pursuit, Elijah found solace and rest with God in the wilderness. David wrote many of the Psalms while in the wilderness, seeking to escape the tyrannical hand of Saul. And it was on an isolated rock in the sea called Patmos that John wrote the book of Revelation.3
Apparently, epiphanies need margin.
What does this tell us about discipleship? We all tend to prefer being around those who don’t slow down the fast pace of our lives. We love not being hindered; especially by people. As I grow in my own formation and maturity, I’m learning that part of the process is embracing the frustrations of slowing down as a means by which the Holy Spirit is forming me. Paul’s words to the church in Rome speak to this: “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up” (Rom. 15:1-2). Bearing with the failings of the weak? Who wants that? Well, the person who wants to be formed into the image of Christ.
This has a deeply practical dimension. If you want to be like Christ, then make it your goal to spend time with people who are not like Christ. The frictions that arise from this are often frustrating, but in the end, these frustrations can cultivate a character within us that is luminescent and breathtaking. Be intentional about incorporating time in your life for people who do not honor your need for hurry and convenience. Time and again, I’ve observed a quality among those who serve as caretakers for children, the non-able-bodied, and the dying—individuals with deep and often frustrating needs—that is not found among the rest of us. They are shaped by the slow, the frustrating, and the inconvenient. Their patience permeates everything they do. They embrace life at the pace it comes, not the pace they want.
Truth is, the fastest road to Christlikeness is often by the slow lane, especially in a moment when everyone is in the fast lane. Like Moses, Elijah, David, Paul, and even Jesus, consider the gift of slowing down as part of the “narrow road” that “very few take.” (Mt 7:14) This is a road that anyone can take. But those who do find that very few are on it.
A.J. Swoboda (Ph.D., Birmingham) is an associate professor of Bible and Theology at Bushnell University and lead mentor for the Doctor of Ministry Program on Spiritual Formation and Soul Care at Friends University. He is the author of many books, including The Gift of Thorns (Zondervan), After Doubt (Brazos), and the award-winning Subversive Sabbath (Brazos). He hosts the “Slow Theology” podcast (w/ Dr. Nijay Gupta) and writes the widely read “Low-Level Theologian” Substack. A.J. lives and works on an urban farm with his wife and son in Eugene, Oregon.
Ex 3:18; Prov 4:11, 18; Isa 43:16.
Mk 6:8 and Jn 14:4-6
Much of this section has been informed by a helpful little section from Hayford, Jack, Living the Spirit Formed Life (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2001), 151–53.
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I was in a cult church for 20 of my 36 years as a Christian so it took years of uprooting and I'm still rooting out things that were imbeded there. So, often I am learning from much younger Christians. It is hard sometimes to think of all the years I wasted and a time of deconstructionism, but God knows. I've learned that he is very patient with us. More patient than we ourselves often are. This was a great post, which I'll be reading again to allow to soak in.
Good stuff, AJ