There used to be a show on called “Restaurant Impossible.” The premise was the host came to the rescue of a failing restaurant and sought to turn it into a successful one in just two days. I remember one episode where the featured restaurant was a small, family-owned one in South Carolina. The owners literally knew nothing about the business and were serving up mostly frozen, canned, and pre-mixed items. They were losing around $10,000 per month.
So the host, chef Robert Irvine, came in with his crew and did a total makeover of the restaurant, created a new menu, and attempted to show the owners and staff how to make their restaurant a more pleasant experience for customers. I was skeptical from the start after seeing how little the people knew about cooking and running a restaurant. That was all going to change in two days! I doubted it.
Well, according to the show, the restaurant had a successful reopening and Mr. Irvine could claim another success story. However, I went online a bit later and checked out some of the reviews of the restaurant months after the show was filmed. While there were a couple favorable ones, most cited poor service and poorly prepared food. The most consistent favorable comments related to the décor, which was totally redone by Mr. Irvine’s crew.
The lesson learned here for me is you can’t become skilled in something without proper training, and that a two-day course will not make you qualified, particularly if you don’t have even a base knowledge that goes with a certain skill.
The same applies to being a follower of Jesus. I know many who put out their sign, “Follower of Jesus,” but have no clue of how to really do it. Like the South Carolina restaurant owners, they may be sincere but they have never sought to be properly trained. So what they serve up is canned fare that attracts few people. And hearing a sermon once a week or spending a weekend at a retreat is not going to change that. Only through thorough training can we effectively learn how to follow Jesus. And the first step is to become students of the Scriptures. It is the most effective tool in establishing a base knowledge of what is involved in living the life Jesus wants us to live. Obedience to what it says is the important next step, but you can’t be obedient to what you do not know, just like a cook can’t prepare a certain dish without knowing the recipe.
Today, recognize you cannot truly follow Jesus without the base knowledge of what that means. Getting thorough training from the Scriptures will put you on a successful path of following Jesus.
© Jim Musser 2016
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