Often times I think about the grandiose, over-arching dream God placed in my heart to change the world for Jesus and it just overwhelms me. All the hurting, all those in pain, all the comfortable, all the broken... it is just SO MUCH to take in. It is usually at this time that God tells me by whispering into my soul that only one thing is important, to help those that He has already put in my life.
Oh yeah, them.
That just seems so simple. I typically reply, "C'mon God, isn't it harder than that?" Then I hear the voice again, "How well are you loving and serving them?" Good point. It IS that difficult, yet simple.
I recently attended a Missional Community Conference in Austin called, Verge. What I experienced there forever changed the trajectory of my life and I will be attempting to flesh out those words over the next several weeks. I gotta be honest, it is really hard to wrap words around what you experience when you encounter the non-sensical, extra-ordinary- the living God.
However, one thing that impacted me immediately after the first day was centered around this idea of partnering with Christ in the redeeming of all things back to God by establishing God's Kingdom here on earth. I distinctly remember hearing words in my soul tell me that of the 1,000 people in my neighborhood, God has intentionally put about 200 of my neighbors in my life on a monthly basis, 40 of them I see regularly, and I know about 15 of their life stories. Forget the masses for a minute, what am I doing about them? How am I loving and serving the fifteen?
That was a profound moment for me.
After the first night, I walked out of the building to meet up with my wife and son who were picking me up. I saw them parked right up front and smiled as I began to walk over to the truck where my son was excitedly yelling, "Daddy, daddy!" This dialogue with God was fresh on my heart like new paint on a wall when I heard words spoken into my soul again that said, "This is your first mission (referring to my family)."
"Yes God," I replied.
To clarify, I am not a pastor. Well, not in the Americanized, traditional sense of the word. However, I have been co-missioned by God through trusting in Jesus to bring the good news of hope that Christ offers to reconnect the spiritually homeless back to God. In that sense, I am a pastor and I have a responsibility to re-present Jesus to the world, to my neighbors, and family. Of course, I do suck at it and rely of God's grace and forgiveness daily and sometimes hourly.
By the way, if you are a follower of Christ, this is your calling as well. Let that sink in.
As a pastor dad, my first co-mission is to help guide and direct my wife and son into a life-giving relationship with Christ. I encourage my wife through questions like, "Did you pray about it?" or "What do you think God wants you to do about that?" I utilize every teachable moment with my son to direct him to Jesus. I help him understand that obedience and respect of his parents shows Jesus (and us) that he loves us.
Maybe this is why God wants us to obey his commands and respect Him above all things? Maybe our obedience and respect shows God that we love Him? I dunno. I'm just a simple t-shirt and jeans guy... it was just a thought.
With all of this in mind...
Today, I had a Holy moment with my son. We were driving to GameStop to go pick up Bioshock 2 and listening to the radio (the game is for me, not him). Fee came on with their song, "All because of Jesus." Good song. After a few moments of silence, I heard a voice from the back seat say, "Dad, I love Jesus Christ."
I turned off the radio.
"What did you say, Jonah?" I inquired with much anticipation.
"I love Jesus Christ," he said very matter-of-factly and at that, he had my full attention.
I began to ask him questions like, "What made you say that?" and "How come you love Jesus?" and "Have you ever prayed and told Jesus that you loved him?"
This led to Jonah spontaneously breaking out into a prayer to God, thanking Him for the day, the sky, and clouds. Jonah then told Jesus that he loved Him. At this point, I jumped into the prayer with him to help him along.
Today, Jonah asked Jesus to live in his heart for a long as he lives and to forgive him of the bad things he has done. My heart exploded.
Jonah is three. Somehow, on the most simplistic level, he gets the importance of a life lived for Jesus. How about you?
Who is the one person you can love well? Who can you serve with no strings attached? How can you engage in the co-missioning you have from God to re-present Jesus to your friends, coworkers, neighbors, and family?