{"id":859452,"date":"2025-11-12T05:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=859452"},"modified":"2025-11-11T12:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T18:11:12","slug":"what-bill-gates-can-teach-us-about-discipleship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/what-bill-gates-can-teach-us-about-discipleship\/","title":{"rendered":"What Bill Gates Can Teach Us About Discipleship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In his book <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/49ecUVu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Road Ahead<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Bill Gates wrote, \u201cWe always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don\u2019t let yourself be lulled into inaction.\u201d Of course, Gates was writing primarily about technological advancement, which he knows well. But he was also writing in a more general sense. As a humanitarian and philanthropist, Gates has also borne witness, both good and bad, to the monumental changes that can happen over a sustained period of time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He\u2019s right. We tend to have a minimal scope of vision. Perhaps it\u2019s the society we have been raised in, one in which the demand for immediacy permeates everything from the way we want our food to the way we want our entertainment. We want \u201cit\u201d how we want \u201cit,\u201d and we want \u201cit\u201d right now. Consequently, we as a people have very little taste for the long game. But perhaps that\u2019s not even forceful enough. If we can\u2019t see the impact, if we can\u2019t see the effect, if we can\u2019t see the immediate change, then we conclude that there is no impact, effect, or change coming at all, and so we move on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can see it in all kinds of ways:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We abandon an exercise routine after a week because we don\u2019t see an immediate change in energy level or waistline.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We abandon a budget because we don\u2019t have enough money right away to pay for the new TV we want.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We abandon a book because it doesn\u2019t grab our attention in the first three or four paragraphs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problem is, so much of life is about the long game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think in terms of parenting. As any parent can tell you, we spend about 90% of our time, especially in the early days, repeating the same things to our kids. And it quickly gets frustrating because nothing seems to be sinking in. The kids make the same mistakes, fall into the same patterns, and exhibit the same traits over and over again. As parents, we become frustrated. No immediate change\u2014so we conclude it\u2019s not working. But parenting, again, is not so much about single actions of teaching, grace, mercy, and provision, but instead about a long, sustained pattern of consistency. That\u2019s where the power is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s true in parenting, just as it is in exercise, in budgeting, and even in reading a book. And it\u2019s also true in discipleship.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s another simple example. Let\u2019s say that we resolve ourselves to learn to pray in a more focused, sustained, and consistent way. Well, on day one, that\u2019s very hard. And day two isn\u2019t much better. Neither is day three, and by then, we start to get a little weary of the process, so we shelve the effort. If we do, we have fallen victim to this kind of short-sighted thinking. We have overestimated the short-term change but underestimated the long-term. And we would do well to think about how many of our attempts at true discipleship, whether we are thinking of our own spiritual growth or of someone else\u2019s, have been put aside far too soon. Discipleship is not about short-term gains. It\u2019s the long game. I\u2019m reminded yet again of what Eugene Peterson said in his book, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4nTemQT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Long Obedience in the Same Direction<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness. Religion in our time has been captured by the tourist mindset. Religion is understood as a visit to an attractive site to be made when we have adequate leisure.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If that is true, then one of the things we should be praying for most as we pursue Jesus is straightforward and clear: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perseverance<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the resolve to keep going. To keep going, not because it feels good. To keep going, not because we see immediate gains. To keep going, not because the road is downhill before us. No, it\u2019s the resolve to keep putting one foot in front of the other, many times plodding along, because God is faithful. And we believe we will see the full result of that faithfulness only in a lifetime, not in a moment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more information about a sustainable and consistent discipleship strategy, visit<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.experiencerooted.com\/pages\/churchanswers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">experiencerooted.com\/churchanswers<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his book The Road Ahead, Bill Gates wrote, \u201cWe always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don\u2019t let yourself be lulled into inaction.\u201d Of course, Gates was writing primarily about technological advancement, which he knows well. But he&#8230;","protected":false},"author":18832,"featured_media":859455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,183,184,175,192,177,178,191,14796,180,18470,194,185],"tags":[21402,21399,98,20214,21400,21401,19036,20213,21398],"class_list":["post-859452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-discipleship","category-grow","category-how-to","category-lead","category-membership-and-assimilation","category-mind-body-and-spirit","category-monday-wednesday-featured","category-outreach-and-evangelism","category-prayer-grow","category-preaching","category-worship","tag-a-long-obedience-in-the-same-direction-by-eugene-peterson","tag-the-road-ahead-by-bill-gates","tag-discipleship","tag-michael-kelley","tag-parenting","tag-perseverance","tag-prayer","tag-rooted-network","tag-what-bill-gates-can-teach-us-about-discipleship"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Bill Gates Can Teach Us About Discipleship | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In his book The Road Ahead, Bill Gates wrote, \u201cWe always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don\u2019t let yourself be lulled into inaction.\u201d Of course, Gates was writing primarily about technological advancement, which he knows well. But he was also writing in a more general sense. As a humanitarian and philanthropist, Gates has also borne witness, both good and bad, to the monumental changes that can happen over a sustained period of time. He\u2019s right. We tend to have a minimal scope of vision. Perhaps it\u2019s the society we have been raised in, one in which the demand for immediacy permeates everything from the way we want our food to the way we want our entertainment. We want \u201cit\u201d how we want \u201cit,\u201d and we want \u201cit\u201d right now. Consequently, we as a people have very little taste for the long game. But perhaps that\u2019s not even forceful enough. If we can\u2019t see the impact, if we can\u2019t see the effect, if we can\u2019t see the immediate change, then we conclude that there is no impact, effect, or change coming at all, and so we move on.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/what-bill-gates-can-teach-us-about-discipleship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Bill Gates Can Teach Us About Discipleship | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his book The Road Ahead, Bill Gates wrote, \u201cWe always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don\u2019t let yourself be lulled into inaction.\u201d Of course, Gates was writing primarily about technological advancement, which he knows well. But he was also writing in a more general sense. As a humanitarian and philanthropist, Gates has also borne witness, both good and bad, to the monumental changes that can happen over a sustained period of time. He\u2019s right. We tend to have a minimal scope of vision. Perhaps it\u2019s the society we have been raised in, one in which the demand for immediacy permeates everything from the way we want our food to the way we want our entertainment. We want \u201cit\u201d how we want \u201cit,\u201d and we want \u201cit\u201d right now. Consequently, we as a people have very little taste for the long game. But perhaps that\u2019s not even forceful enough. 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Don\u2019t let yourself be lulled into inaction.\u201d Of course, Gates was writing primarily about technological advancement, which he knows well. But he was also writing in a more general sense. As a humanitarian and philanthropist, Gates has also borne witness, both good and bad, to the monumental changes that can happen over a sustained period of time. He\u2019s right. We tend to have a minimal scope of vision. Perhaps it\u2019s the society we have been raised in, one in which the demand for immediacy permeates everything from the way we want our food to the way we want our entertainment. We want \u201cit\u201d how we want \u201cit,\u201d and we want \u201cit\u201d right now. Consequently, we as a people have very little taste for the long game. But perhaps that\u2019s not even forceful enough. 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