by Scott Smoak, Pinnacle Associate, from his Curriculum, “Covered in Dust”
Maybe you’ve spent years around Jesus.
You’ve attended worship, read Scripture, listened to sermons, participated in Bible studies, served in the church, and tried to live a good Christian life.
You believe in Jesus. You admire Jesus. You want your life to reflect Jesus.
But let me ask you a question: Are you learning to live your life the way Jesus lived his?
There’s a difference between knowing about Jesus and learning to become like Jesus.
And that difference is where apprenticeship begins.
More Than Believing
When Jesus called his first disciples, he didn’t invite them to sign up for a class, memorize a collection of beliefs, or simply admire him from a distance.
He said, “Follow me.”
They walked with him. They ate with him. They listened to his teaching. They watched how he treated people, responded to interruptions, handled conflict, prayed, rested, and loved.
They learned by being with him.
That’s what an apprentice does.
An apprentice doesn’t simply collect information about a teacher. An apprentice stays close enough to observe, practice, make mistakes, receive guidance, and gradually become more like the one they follow.
The goal isn’t just to know what the teacher knows. It’s to become the kind of person the teacher is.
This is the invitation of Jesus.
Not simply to believe in him, but to arrange our lives around being with him, becoming like him, and doing what he did.
I call this apprenticeship to Jesus.
And I believe it may be one of the most important invitations we can rediscover in our faith.
Covered in the Dust
The name Covered in Dust comes from an old image of discipleship.
A student followed a rabbi so closely that the dust kicked up by the rabbi’s feet would settle on the student. Imagine that picture.
The apprentice stays close. Close enough to hear the teacher. Close enough to observe the teacher’s way of life. Close enough to learn not just what the teacher says, but how the teacher lives.
The image captures something beautiful about following Jesus.
We don’t want to follow from a distance. We want to walk close enough that his life begins to shape ours.
We want to become people who increasingly reflect his love, his compassion, his courage, his humility, and his way of seeing the world.
That’s the heart of Covered in Dust.
It isn’t another Bible study to complete or another spiritual program to master. It’s an invitation to rediscover the life of an apprentice of Jesus.
And it rests on three movements.
1. Walk Close
Arrange your life to remain attentive and available to Jesus. Everything begins here.
Jesus said, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you” (John 15:4).
A branch doesn’t produce fruit by trying harder. It produces fruit by remaining connected to the vine.
The same is true of our spiritual lives.
We can become so busy doing things for Jesus that we forget to spend time with Jesus. We can fill our calendars with good activities, responsibilities, and commitments while our souls quietly become exhausted.
But Jesus’ first invitation is relationship.
Before the disciples were sent out to do ministry, Mark tells us that Jesus appointed them “that they might be with him” (Mark 3:14).
Presence came before assignment.
Walking close means creating space to be attentive to Jesus in the actual life we have. It means learning to listen, pray, read Scripture, become still, and notice his presence.
It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Two minutes of quiet. A paragraph of Scripture read slowly. A whispered prayer before entering a difficult conversation. A moment at midday to stop, breathe, and remember that Jesus is with you.
These small practices aren’t ways to prove our devotion. They are ways of remaining available to the One who already loves us.
The question isn’t simply, “What should I accomplish for Jesus today?”
It’s this: How will I remain with Jesus today?
2. Become Whole
Allow Jesus to heal, integrate, and reshape the person you are becoming.
Following Jesus is not about pretending we have everything together.
We bring our whole selves into this relationship: our stories, wounds, disappointments, desires, fears, relationships, gifts, failures, and hopes.
Nothing needs to be hidden from the One who loves us.
Sometimes we discover that the things shaping our lives aren’t necessarily the things we want shaping our lives.
The need for approval. The desire to control. Old resentments. Fear. Shame. The pressure to achieve. The habit of always needing to be right.
These things can quietly influence how we live, how we treat people, and how we understand ourselves.
Jesus invites us into a different kind of freedom.
Becoming whole doesn’t mean becoming flawless. It means bringing every part of ourselves under the loving leadership of Jesus.
Sometimes that means healing. Sometimes it means surrender. Sometimes it means learning to receive grace. Sometimes it means letting go of an identity or expectation that no longer serves the life God is forming in us.
Jesus says in Matthew 16:25 that whoever loses their life for his sake will find it.
There is a kind of losing that leads to freedom.
We may need to release the false self built around achievement, control, image, resentment, or the need to please everyone. We don’t lose the person God created us to be. We begin to let go of what keeps us from becoming that person.
And remember: we do this from belovedness, not for belovedness.
You don’t become loved by God through successful spiritual performance. You learn to follow Jesus because you are already loved.
The question becomes:
Who am I becoming, and what is Jesus lovingly forming in me?
3. Love Well
Practice the self-giving love of Jesus in ordinary relationships and real situations.
Here’s where the life of an apprentice becomes visible.
Jesus said that people would recognize his disciples by their love (John 13:35).
Love isn’t an optional addition to spiritual formation. It is the evidence of it.
We can read Scripture, practice silence, develop a Rule of Life, and learn all kinds of spiritual disciplines. Those things matter. But if our lives aren’t becoming more loving, we have to ask what we’re actually learning.
The fruit of walking close to Jesus and becoming whole is a growing capacity to love.
Patience. Kindness. Forgiveness. Compassion. Courage. Truthfulness. Generosity. Humility.
And where does that love show up? In the ordinary places of life.
In the way we speak to our spouse. In how we respond to a difficult person. In whether we listen or interrupt. In how we treat someone who cannot do anything for us. In how we handle disappointment, disagreement, inconvenience, and frustration.
The classroom of apprenticeship is everyday life.
Sometimes the lesson arrives disguised as an interruption.
The person who slows down our schedule. The conversation where listening matters more than winning. The family member who presses an old wound. The stranger who needs to be seen.
These aren’t interruptions to the spiritual life.
They are the places where the spiritual life takes shape.
The question is:
Who is Jesus inviting me to love today, and what might love look like in practice?
This Is a Life, Not a Program.
Walk Close. Become Whole. Love Well.
These three movements aren’t three boxes to check or three stages we eventually graduate from. They are a rhythm of life.
We walk close so Jesus can form us. As we become whole, we gain freedom to love. As we love, we discover the places where we still need to remain, heal, and grow.
Then we begin again.
This is a lifelong journey. Formation takes time. There are seasons of growth and seasons when we wonder whether anything is happening at all.
But apprentices expect to keep learning.
We don’t need to redesign our entire lives tomorrow. We don’t need an elaborate spiritual schedule or a long list of new commitments.
We need a willingness to begin.
Choose one small practice that helps you walk close. Pay attention to one place where Jesus may be inviting you to become whole. Look for one opportunity to love well.
Start there. Small things, practiced with love, form a life.
Walk Close, Become Whole, Love Well.
