And Now . . . Do!

-

[Resurrection Station #7 – Matthew 28]

Go and make disciples!

Each of my other Resurrection Stations started with a question Jesus asked (in case you hadn’t noticed). But Jesus doesn’t ask questions here; he gives a bunch of commands. Go. Train. Baptize. Teach. This is the Great Commission, a passage pounded into me throughout my Southern Baptist upbringing

By many good and faithful Southern Baptists . . . like David Platt. I am quite fond of David Platt. His book Radical and the videos from his many years of Secret Church conferences had a profound impact on me at significant points in my life. He seems well-grounded, genuine, and compassionate. I respect the guy greatly.

But I have to admit, he sends me on serious guilt trips sometimes. "There are 3.2 billion people with little to no access to the gospel. That's 40% of the world's population," he tells me on Facebook. He is all about evangelism, reaching the unreached people round the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. And that is WONDERFUL. I admire his passion greatly, and his goal, of course, is important. I'm all on board with that. 

Except that I'm not. I mean, I am . . . but I'm not. 

I have spent my entire life being told that the most important thing in all of life is to make sure as many people as possible trust Jesus Christ as their Savior and that there is absolutely nothing that should stand in the way of my giving all of my time and energy and abilities and resources to that end. And that is hard to argue with, people. Cuz I DO believe in Christ, and this is important stuff! I know it is. And yet . . . sigh.

Y'all. THE GUILT. And I'm already afraid of the sermons I'm going to get on this post from well-meaning and sincere friends who will be afraid I've lost my way when I say I don't feel called to evangelize.

Because I don't. Not really. I mean, yes, kind of . . . but no, I'm afraid I just don't.

Enter my friend Oswald. Mr. Chambers, the author of My Utmost for his Highest, which I’m reading this year as my daily devotional. (That is, when I get a daily devotional read . . . which is less than daily . . . I’m fighting the guilt on that one, too.) He told me something recently that lifted a weight from my shoulders:

“One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit.”

You see, I have always seen our relationship with God as a continuum of sorts: on one end of the spectrum, we are very distant from him – even actively rebelling against him or denying his existence altogether. On the other end . . . well, that would be heaven, I guess. The closest connection we could have. And throughout our lives, the goal is to move up the mountain, to get closer and closer to him. And we want to help others get closer and closer to him, too.

Now, there’s a little hump in the middle of that continuum that is Salvation – a point where we “cross from death to life.” And yes, that’s a critical little hump there. But there is plenty of journey getting to that hump and plenty of land we traverse past it. I’ve always been frustrated with the absolute, undivided focus so much of the church has on that hump. Personally, I’ve always felt more called to people on either side. Specifically, God has most often put me in places where I’m motivating believers to grow in their faith – teaching Sunday School, leading drama ministries, teaching in a Christian school, even writing this blog. Although I recognize the need for people to be “awakened by his Spirit”, I personally feel more equipped for building believers who are “totally devoted to God”. There’s so much more to do than simply coaxing them over the hump.

So no, I don’t feel called to evangelism, at least not as the church usually defines it. And I’ve finally decided that’s fine. I have a calling: Disciple-Making. Teaching. Training. Equipping. Building people up. If I take my eyes off of that to hover around the hump, I don’t accomplish what God has put me here for. I’m not fulfilling my Great Commission.  

Disciple-making is more than what we have defined it as. And it is THE Great Commission. Jesus’ commission to us all. Even if we’re not in third world countries making new converts, we are all commissioned to be God’s voice to somebody somewhere on that spectrum. So . . . speak! Do! Go!

My task for this week of Eastertide: make disciples. I mean, be intentional about it. Keep that goal in the forefront of everything I’m doing. Thank you, Lord, for the disciple-makers you brought into my life over the years . . . and for the honor and privilege of filling that role in other lives.

[Did you miss R-Station #6? Read it here.]

[Wanna start from the top? Here’s #1.]

[“What’s a Resurrection Station?” you ask. Glad you did. Click here.]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This One Person

-
Image
Y’all, God has blessed me with really good people in my life. People who love me, support me, appreciate me, and go out of their way for me. The gifts and kind words and all-day-long singing I received on my birthday last week were small examples of that. Seriously, friends . . . how do I deserve you? So many good people. So, I really shouldn’t give as much attention as I do to the one exception, right? One person. There’s just this one person . They are a constant burr in my saddle these days. They make my life harder – and if this isn’t intentional on their part, or at least passive aggressive, it is most certainly selfish. In almost everything they do, they seem to communicate a lack of respect for me.  It’s only one person. Why do I let this one person affect me so much? We’ve all got our baggage, you know. I’ve shared some of mine before here in this blog. One particular parcel I tote around unseen is an unspoken message I’ve heard in my heart since childhood – particula
Read more

Life is People-y

-
Image
I love my job. Really, I really, really do. But my place of employment has had a few rocky years. Every once in a while, we come to a point where I say to myself, Okay, time for a fresh start. The old issues are over. The people who were discontented have left or are appeased. Now we can move forward and have peace. Bu-u-ut no. There’s always something. I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that even though I love my job, there will always be stressors I’m dealing with. Because as my colleague says, it’s a very people-y job. And people are . . . well, people . People are wounded. Everyone has been damaged by someone and bears the scars. And that damage often bleeds out in our behavior toward others. People are fearful. They are afraid of making mistakes. They are afraid of saying the wrong thing. They are afraid of confrontation. They are afraid of burning bridges. They are afraid of being labeled and unliked. People are selfish. Even when they want to be self-less, they
Read more

Hopeful Reality

-
Image
This past July, I spent a couple crazy weeks working at Crystal Sea Drama Company (which I casually refer to as “my theater” because I've spent so much time there over the past decade). It was the year for our New Play Festival, which I’ve said many times is the best thing we do. CSDC students wrote the plays, CSDC alumni directed the plays, and CSDC campers performed the plays. Last fall, I taught the playwriting class preparing for this big event. There were six girls in the class – more than I’ve ever had for a playwriting class. They were all writers already. Most of them had novels in progress, and some of them had two or three they were working on. But writing a play . . . that’s a different kettle of fish, they learned. And it was a fun few months working with them in that endeavor. I was proud of the work they ended the semester with. Only three of them chose to have their plays performed in the festival, which was fine. But not until we were rehearsing this summer did
Read more

INFECTION

-
Image
Y’all, I’ve had two colds in the past three months. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but for me it can be. If I don’t treat my colds early and effectively, they grow into monsters that do me in for a month or more. That’s what happened in June. I came home from a trip sick. I mean, sick . Sicker than I’ve been for a long time. And that cold progressed into a wicked chest cough that hung around for the rest of the month, even after my doctor prescribed an antibiotic and a heavy-duty cough suppressant (which wasn’t cheap, let me tell you). I mean, people, IT SUCKS. Then the first morning of the second week of school, I woke up with the inkling of soreness in my throat and felt a bit of panic. Thankfully, because I was home this time at that first hint of a symptom, I was able to start taking my Zinc, Selenium, and Vitamin C immediately. That’s my happy little cocktail that seems to kick these little infections out the door if I start it early. The cold came . . . but it was very m
Read more