What's Really Going On Anyway?

There are lots of "going’s on" this week for me.

I have to go and see the doctor.

I have to go and meet with someone for lunch.

I have to go and buy some groceries.

I have to go and watch several basketball games.

I have to go and return some library books.

I have to go and run some errands.

I have to go and….you get the picture. 

It seems our days can get so filled with just doing life.  The list of our “go and’s” seem to have far more staying power then there is daylight. I invariably find myself rolling into bed at night with still unattended “go and’s” left to fulfill.  I awake not only with the residual list from the day before glaring at me from the counter where I left it the night before but with a fresh one just begging to pounce on my day.  I run from one “go and” to the next never really doing it well with a nagging sense of frustration that I am missing something.  Gnawing in the back of my mind is that one “go and” that I know I must do but I am beside myself how I am ever going to accomplish it.  I can’t handle one more “go and”.

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 

                        Matt 28:19 (emphasis mine)

Anyone but me feeling a pain of guilt blanketed with frustration?  How does one “go and” this commandment?  Since the Lord of heaven and earth is the one authorizing the “go and” shouldn’t I be making that the priority on my already over packed list?  How am I supposed to do this?  Jesus didn’t you say that “your yoke is easy and your burden is light”?  So how exactly does one navigate this God ordained mandate to “go and” with my way lesser “go and’s” of a more temporal nature. 

The problem lies with the list.  I am not saying to never make a list and in fact I am a huge supporter of list makers everywhere.  Without them every important appointment and deadline would be lost forever in the recesses of my middle aged mind.  The problem is that the “go and” was never meant to be on the list.  This “go and” is actually what is driving the list.  Could it even be what is actually inspiring the list?

These past few months I have had the privilege to be a part of a Bible study on the book of Jonah written by Priscilla Shirer.  She points out that the word “go” in Matthew 28 in the Greek language is an aorist participle “which means it takes on the mood of the command – making disciples.  It could more accurately be translated as going.   In other words, the command to make disciples should be accomplished while believers are going about their business.  ‘As you are going make disciples in all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.’” (Jonah, Navigating a Life Interrupted, p106-107)

Did you catch this?  The “go and” is really like going.  It isn’t just one more item on my list of things to do but is the underlying driving force that propels me as “I am going about my business”.  It is the one common denominator that links all my “go and’s” together.

I have to go and make disciples while I am seeing the doctor.

I have to go and make disciples while I meet my friend for lunch.

I have to go and make disciples as I buy some groceries.

I have to go and make disciples as I watch several basketball games.

I have to go and make disciples as I return those library books.

I have to go and make disciples as I run some errands.

Perhaps you are wondering how is that going to make a difference.  Wouldn’t a more focused planned opportunity make for a better chance that someone might be saved?   Perhaps a rousing church service or more articulate speaker with a gift of evangelism or I know how about if I just pray that other people would be anointed to make disciples.  That ought to do it!

While in theory that might seem practical, I would like to present to you the person of Andrew.  Take a moment.  Do you know who Andrew was in scripture?  I did but only vaguely.  Did you know that he is credited for one of the most profound evangelical accomplishments in all scripture?

“The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ).  And he brought him to Jesus.”

                                       John 1:41-42

This Simon is our very same Peter.  Surely if you haven’t heard of Andrew you must know Peter.  You know the walk on water Peter, the rooster crowing convicted Peter, the cut off an ear defending Jesus Peter.  The powerful evangelical Peter whose first sermon added 3000 followers to the church in one day, the Peter who heals the crippled beggar, the Peter whose handkerchiefs became a hot commodity for healing.  The Peter who penned two books of the Bible and when brought to be crucified by Nero requested to be hung upside down as he saw himself unworthy to be crucified in the same way as Jesus Christ.  Oh and then of course there is the whole “rock that I will build my church on” thing.

“And he brought him to Jesus”

So simple but so extraordinarily profound.  One simple act in the midst of Andrews “and going” led to such a cataclysmic change in not only one mans life but in the generations to come.   What seemed to Andrew a humble invitation became the spark that would set the world on edge.  I wonder what would happen if we had the mind of Andrew.  What if we could put our self imposed agenda’s and ideas aside and just simply tell people that we encounter in the midst of our “and going” about Jesus?  What if we took our eyes off of the spectacular and the drama that we think are the earmarks of a good witnessing opportunity?  What if we made it as simple as this?  “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him.”

So simple, so powerful, so profound.  I would like to be more like Andrew.  Perhaps I don’t need to make it as complicated as I do.  Maybe a fresh perspective towards those nagging lists of “go and’s” will not only energize me for the task but produce the fruit of salvation for others that I so desperately desire.  Maybe God doesn’t want it to be a separate item on my list but the guiding force behind it.  Maybe in reality all those things aren’t really my agenda in the first place, maybe they are God’s.  Maybe God has someone waiting at the end of that “go and” who He has prepared for someone to tell them.  Maybe there is a much bigger purpose, maybe its time for me to change my perspective, maybe it’s just time to “go and…”.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

                                         Theodore Roosevelt