Three Word Wednesday: go to them

Kristin Hill Taylor's 3 Word Wednesday tells us Go to them!

God told Abram to leave where he was and "go to a country I will show you!" Genesis 12:1. Go. Ever since then, we've looked to Abram/Abraham as our model for trusting God into a future, into our future. I needed to use one of my scriptural expressions, and how perfectly does "I will follow you wherever you go I will follow you" [Luke 9:57; Matthew 8:19] fit the entire concept of not waiting for people to approach us in life or to saunter into the church building on their own, but to go out and find them where they are!? We know the Jesus story: yummy meals, spontaneous and pre-planned, with friends, with strangers, with polite society's literal outcasts and various others who aren't quite like us. Did he sit on the patio waiting for people to approach him? Nope!

"I will follow you wherever you go, Jesus!" Are you willing. Are you able. To drink the cup? Walk the talk? Will you really follow?

We love because God first loved us. We go because God first calls us. We can go because God sends us in the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. To be sent literally means to go on a mission. Sometimes people go on more or less formal missions: a day or a weekend across the border to help neighbors build or repair; a semester overseas to get some of our own culture shock, learn a new language, teach reading and writing; a couple of years combining proselytizing and humanitarian service. Everyone is a full time missionary all the time. Walk out the door and go. To a person, a country, a place, maybe something simple like texting someone you haven't heard from in a while. Volunteer for park cleanup day. Open the door, step outside, and go. Into your own future!

Jesus commands (leave where we are), go and make disciples, baptize them, who then will go and make disciples, baptize those, who in turn will... but to go doesn't always need to be elaborate or extensive! Walk out the door and go. To a person, a country, a place... open the door, step outside, and go. We still look to Abram/Abraham as our model for trusting God into a future, into our future. Open the door, step outside and go. Into your own future!

"Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you whithersoever you go." Joshua 1:9