As Jesus said, Discipleship is not easy, especially in today’s world. Today there are many individuals who try to make a difference in the world. These people aim to live up to the idea of being a disciple, by trying to follow the footsteps of Jesus. Examples of this would be people who volunteer to work for a charity. They chose to sacrifice their time to help others in need. They do not need to do this but as they know they can make a difference by seeking to do well for others and usually succeeding. People who work for CAFOD go to developing countries with a mission of helping some one overcome difficulties such as poverty and famine, in hope of giving them a brighter future. Aid workers give up the chance of living a good life in order to help dying people around the world. Their motto is, “We live simply, so others can simply live”. This is a very unselfish way of living your own life. Also parents who may have children who are disabled or sick in some way, sacrifice their time to help their child to cope with their illness or disability. These people have to put themselves second in order to care for their child or close family member. They have to constantly make sure their child is coping well and is cared for. They sacrifice their whole life as they put themselves second, to the less able person, as they need more love, care and attention.
An example of a famous Christian today is Helen Keller. At the age of nineteen months Helen fell ill with meningitis, but after overcoming predictions of death, she lived. Helen was then left deaf and blind from her illness. A centre was built – Helen Keller National Centre – in memory of Helen after she unfortunately died in 1968, after learning how to overcome being deaf and blind by learning to communicate with people despite her disabilities. The centre, located in New York, is for deaf or blind youths or adults. The team who work there work together to support an individual in achieving a vocational outcome. They specialise in independent living, language skills and have behavioural specialists to help with disobedient children. This shows Christian values by trying to help others be accepted into a community, because if they are deaf or blind they would have communication difficulties, but being helped with these will help the person communicate well with others. With help from the people who work at the centre, people’s lives could be changed for the better, as when they leave they would be able to communicate and cope with their disability more. People are there to help others with their disabilities to help them achieve things, which may b impossible without the help of the Helen Keller Nationalist Centre.
All people who sacrifice something of theirs to help others in some way will receive rewards I believe. These people may get job satisfaction in some form or other. By feeling that they have helped someone to cope with a disability or with poverty will give them personal satisfaction, as well as job satisfaction when they see a child eat for the first time after months of starvation. By taking part in building a water pump you will feel good inside and make others happy by doing something good for others. So this teaching of discipleship can help Christians today to sacrifice more of their time in order to help others and make the world a more united, peaceful and equal place to live in.
