The Berlin Wall in relationship to Discipleship

A few months ago I was talking to my roommate from Germany. She was telling me the history of the Berlin Wall and its falling. History comes alive and takes on a different meaning when you hear it from the people it affected. At one point in our conversation, while telling me about watching the footage filmed on the day the wall came down, my roommate remarked,

“When you see the face of someone who has just tasted freedom for the first time,

That is powerful.”

This comment struck me and has lingered on in the back of my mind.

Do you see how this can be applied to life and discipleship?

Fast forward a few months, I’m in the middle of staffing a type of missionary school which involves people and the baggage they’ve carried for far too long. To be completely honest, there have been times I have asked myself why anyone would want to staff this school. Here’s where my question came out of-

I’ve been support staff of these schools, doing the background work such as housekeeping or teaching the kids, and I have seen the faces of people who have tasted freedom for the first time and it has indeed been powerful.  I have gotten the “feel good” feelings of watching, almost as a bystander, the students experience life in a way they never have before. I have praised God for bringing freedom, and I have even cried thinking about how amazing all of this is.

Now, in a different role, in the midst of the student’s everyday lives, I’m seeing a different side. Freedom doesn’t always happen overnight. And in the midst of everyday life that consists of things such as curfews, relationships, and using the wrong towel to dry your hands, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture.

The bigger picture that Freedom is being brought and that change is happening.

Thinking of all this, the Berlin Wall comes to mind.

On November 9^th, 1989 as the wall began to be torn down, piece by piece, I’m sure many watched it from a distance, later on their television sets, and felt the feeling of freedom. I’m sure many cried, knowing that this was a day that held great significance and would be recorded in student’s textbooks, forever remembered. They saw freedom, they felt freedom.

Then there were those, whose lives and families had literally been torn apart by the building of this wall. These people flocked to the wall, hammer or pick in hand, and tore at that wall with everything in them. They had waited for this day, dreamed of this day, and as they tore apart that wall, piece by piece, their sweat mixing in with their tears, they experienced freedom firsthand and stood alongside, helping people experience the same. They saw freedom, they felt freedom.

“For whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.”

What am I saying through all of this?

I’m saying that to experience true freedom requires sacrifice. I’m saying I am learning, in helping others receive and experience freedom, that it’s not always going to be a “walk in the park”, it’s gonna get dirty, I’m going to chip a nail, I’m going to do things that are not as effective or as necessary as I thought, I’m going to cry (a lot), but freedom is being brought, change is happening. I have seen the faces and the countenance of students change, and will continue to see them change,

And that is powerful.