Once upon a time (well, 1993 to be precise) Isaiah Berlin wrote an essay about Tolstoy’s view of history. Not a riveting read, you might think, but let me spin you his story …
Once upon a time (again) there was a fox and a hedgehog. The fox was a crafty creature who was able to devise hundreds of cunning and complex strategies for trapping his prey. The one prey that made him drool more than any other was the humble hedgehog. One day the fox was lying in wait at just the right place on the path with just the right amount of camouflage and just the right visibility.
Watching. Waiting. Salivating.
Then to his delight the hedgehog came ambling past, minding his own business. The fox thought “Aha, I’ve got you now” and sprang out with claws at the ready, bearing down on the hedgehog with lightening speed. The hedgehog, sensing the danger thought calmly to himself “Oh no. Here we go again – will he ever learn?” and rolled himself up into a perfect sphere of spikes.
Every day some variation of this battle between the fox and the hedgehog took place and every day the hedgehog won.
Berlin applied this parable by dividing people into two groups, the foxes and the hedgehogs. The foxes are those who pursue many different things at all the same time to try to advance their cause. In contrast the hedgehogs organise life around one simple idea; one basic principle that unifies and guides everything.
Victoria’s hedgehog concept is very simple “make disciples”. It was part of Jesus’ great commission to us and it was what he did himself. It is also the one idea that has brought health and growth to the church of Jesus Christ ever since the first century. At heart, a disciple is someone who copies his master and frames his (or her) thinking and actions around the teaching and example of the Lord.
This is the purpose of our current morning teaching series ‘Disciple!’. Whatever stage you are in you spiritual journey I want to help you in simple and practical ways to be more like Jesus. It’s an elementary hedgehog type of concept that has defeated Satan for the whole of history. I hope you will engage with it, learn from it and, above all, have the adventure of living it.
God bless you in your discipleship.
Ian
