Why go so far? The ultimate mission question. People ask me this question often. I often wonder why people ask the question. Are they really wondering or do they hope my answer will somehow lack resonance with them and therefore negate their longing to do something amazing for God and mankind? Not everyone is called to go everywhere, its ok to say “no thanks, not feeling’ it”. But what if the idea sounds exciting or a little crazy and captures your interest just a bit; Exotic land, far away, different culture and people who don’t always look like me, eat like me and live like me. What if God called you “to Go”.
He likely is calling you “to go” somewhere. Maybe its just down the street to work in the nursery at your church. Maybe its down the way at a community volunteer event or across the state to help those folks in crisis. The bible is pretty clear about doing something…for somebody…somewhere. God called me and a bunch of my friends to go to Cuba. Why? No idea. Just happens. You get invited to go, you waiver, you go anyway and you find yourself on an airplane to a crazy destination to do even crazier things and ask yourself, “why am I here, on this plane, to go do something I might be uncomfortable doing which might be my undoing” While you are being undone, God is doing some weaving and is about to sow you back up, stuffed with new stuff and full like the suitcase you brought because you got emptied while you stretched your inner self to new places and into deeper water you thought not possible while you fuddied with your phone back at the airport.
Why do we go? ‘Cause God pulls a little and a friend pushes a little and you step forward, with God, to new places both physical and spiritual and receive the blessings of the Creator of the Universe as you accept the call “to Go” somewhere or someplace for God, not for yourself but for God and for people who can do nothing for you except help fill you up with God stuff that has to be sewn up so that it doesn’t spill out on the floor. We Go because God calls us, through a friend or staring at a map or if you’re really lucky in some vision or dream so you know it must be “real”. But after we go, we make friends and we share and we escape for a bit our own crazy lives as we enter the craziness of other cultures and other people making their way in a far away place we can’t even imagine. So Go. Make a choice, dive in, live life. God is calling you somewhere, maybe with us, maybe closer or maybe farther but you gotta go if God is calling. Clarity comes on the way home, its a little fuzzy on the way there. Go anyway. May God go with you.
Blessings
Dr. Rick