Today, and the rest of my life....

If there is one thing about driving I absolutely cannot stand it is traffic. I will driven extra ten minutes if I have to to avoid it in most cases. Anything that slows me down from getting to my destination I see as a frustration and do everything in my power to avoid it.

I know I am not alone in this statement, but God really revealed something to me tonight that I felt an abundant need to write about.

Again, I can confidently say I am not Alone when I say I am anxious to seek God’s will for my life, and when I catch a glimmer of what it is, I do whatever I can to fulfill that will. I will refer to His will and my life as a highway.

If our life is a highway, we want it to be like driving at 6am on a Sunday, smooth and no distractions or interruptions, but more often than not, at least personally i find my highway a lot more comparable to rush hour traffic with a wreck and multiple lane closures. What God revealed to me was that I create a lot of the traffic in my own walk with him, in the form of idols.

Scripture says in 1 Thessalonians 1:9 

“For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,”

This scripture examples the removing of idols through service to the one, true God. Every time I lust after money or cars, every time I concern myself over my sociability or my right standing with the people of this world, over my right standing with God, I am placing a traffic jam in my own path to Him. Logically, if I hate traffic why would I be creating this jam? Because my pride, and the world tells me that MY WILL is greater than THY WILL. the temporary benefit of wealth or personal satisfaction is easier to comprehend because it is more readily tangible to me than the pursuit of righteousness in Christ. My desire and seeming need for control inhibits my ability to surrender to the Holy Spirit that so desperately wants to clear my path of all idols. True comfort does not come in the form of financial security, or my number of friends, it rests in Christ, and my relationship with him.

If we look back on our lives, and analyze our history with God, we will see that he comes through. He is like the ultimate clutch player. He fulfills every promise, he is omni-everything. If I need wisdom, he’s got it, if I need advice, He has it, if I need ANYTHING, He IS it. As the Lord says to Moses in Exodus 3, “tell the people I AM sent you.” He is, so we are not, and we as a people need to realize that if we are not, then cars are also not, and money is also not, and sex is also not, and big houses and a great job are also NOT. God’s promise to us is simple in John 10:10, come to life by Christ, and have it abundantly, but if you are a thieve or robber of what he has provided you will be destroyed. That destruction is felt when we have placed so many road blocks in our life’s highway that we cannot even move forward anymore, we become engulfed and consumed by our idols, our sin. But in surrendering to the spirit, one by one, that sin is lifted, and we can move forward, and it frees up our ability to seek his will. It makes me re think how I look at the term “free will”. It is not just the ability to choose to do right or wrong, but to have a cleared and free path to follow God, and His will, but will we choose to align our free will with His perfect will? Or will we continuously block our path with our own fabricated versions of happiness.

A fifth grade teacher once spent a whole day teaching his class a history lesson. The lesson was not fact, it was fabricated. The next day, the teacher tested the class on what they had learned, and though their answers were correct according to their notes, they were not accurate to history. The teacher gave all of them failing grades because their answers were not historically correct.

Moral of the story? It does not matter who is teaching, we need to make sure for ourselves what is being learned is the truth.

What we think may match our notes, but does it match the Truth? Acts 17:11 says

“Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”

I know my first reaction to the reception of a teaching is relief. Relief that I no longer need to read that verse preached Sunday morning, or research the theme presented that day. That is the opposite of what I should do according to Acts here. The Bereans were receiving the teachings of Paul, THE Paul. The Paul that chilled with Jesus, the Paul who went through radical punishment for the cause of Christ, the Paul who was Saul. Yet they still took what he said and compared it to the scriptures. They did it eagerly, what do we do eagerly?

They did it eagerly because they got it. They understood that discernment is not only for the “gifted” but it was a discipline in their faith. To discern teachings based on scripture and NOTHING else. Not what Francis Chan says, or Furtick, or Driscoll, or Rob Bell. Oh, Rob Bell, I will get to him.

We need to focus our learning not on the people of this world, but on the One who created it. Too often we are seeking the Spirit to help us in our endeavors, rather than having the Spirit define our endeavors. Seek His will, and what we learn from our pastors or mentors or friends, take home and justify ourselves through prayerfully considering the Word.

Rob Bell still teaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He just has a part wrong. And without discernment through scripture we would not be able to tell him that. He is not the only one that has ever messed up, and he will not be the last, but Rob Bell is not the only preacher we should be analyzing. It is every teaching, every time.

Is your teacher telling you the sky is green?

This whole NFL situation was shown under a new light to me today. Essentially, the owners and players are engaged in an enormous, costly, annoying staring contest. In its purest form, they are staring at each other, waiting for the other to blink so things can go back to normal. But in the midst of the contest, there is great tension, both parties so focused on their side becoming victorious, that anything else does not matter. Whether they are effecting other people, or even hurting themselves. All they want to do is win. The fact of the matter is at the end of the day, there is no way the NFL as a whole is going to go under, it is too big of an industry with too much interest by fans for that to happen. And at the end of the day, it is going to be the owners that have the authority to change the ruling so that everyone can be happy. After all, it is their checkbooks that are being fought over.

The analogy I am putting together here is one that I have realized recently with my cherished inequities. If I feel God is calling me to surrender something in my life that I really love, I have a hard time doing it. At first, I try to justify it as my own creation by saying “it isn’t from god its just in my head.” Usually that is followed by God convicting me about such a thing to the point where I know it is from him, so I try and compromise.

God doesn’t do compromises.

Then the staring contest begins. If it weren’t enough that God is omnipotent, I start with one strike because I am coming at the situation in anger or frustration where God is coming in out of love. Why would God want to take this from me? How does he not see why I want this?

He does see, and God can always one up it. He loves us so much, that he tries to warn us of the potholes of life and offers us the life we desire, except we are constantly fooled into believing that we actually want something else. So the staring contest continues. It typically goes on until something happens, many times negative, and we finally realize that Thy will is ALWAYS greater than my will. Phillipians 2:3-8 says:

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

The son of God humbled himself through obedience. I need to follow in Christ’s example, and submit to God. I have no excuse not to, I know His word, and I desire His will. Through obedience I will have that desire fulfilled. The longer I stare and do not submit, the more I am effecting myself, and others. The more of what God wants done is not getting done. We are wasting time by fighting with God, we know he is right.

The funny thing about the staring contest with God is, God isn’t even looking into our eyes, he is looking into our hearts. Just like original sin, before we even started, we had lost.

How long does it take you to realize you cant win a fight with God?

I was lucky in High School to have had the opportunity to take wood shop. I learned a variety of skills I can utilize in a lot of areas in my life, not just in the form of woodworking. One of the coolest parts over the years is the tangible completed works I did while there, I have a table at my grandpa’s house, multiple shelves and benches, and many other things I worked on. These were all projects I had done, I had an idea, put it on paper, then made it tangibly; now I have the completed item.

How many of us look at our relationship with Jesus as a project? 

Truth is, our relationship should be a process, not a project. At no point can we stop, look at our relationship with God and say “I’m Finished.” It reminds me of pulling weeds.

Weeds kill our yard. If I am going to attempt to remove weeds from my yard, I shouldn’t look at it as a day project. Weeds come back, nothing I can do about that, but I can remove them for a time. If I try and get them all at once, and look at my yard and say “wow, that looks great.” I will only be disappointed and frustrated when they come back. But, If I look at it as a process, that over time I will slowly but surely attempt to remove all of the weeds, knowing it is impossible in this life to do so entirely, I can formulate a better game plan. A game plan that will not result in frustration, but satisfaction. The process of removing weeds will involve a lot of projects

Sin is the weeds of our life. It permeates all we do, and we cannot escape it. If we do nothing about it, it will ultimately bring us to destruction, both on earth and eternally. At no point do we reach a point of sinless perfection on earth, but we can work to remove sin from our everyday rituals. If we can learn to accept that we are sinful, and acknowledge that it is wrong, we have taken the first step. The first step is almost useless without the second step, which is turning the sin over to God. Our weed wacker of life is Jesus, and a relationship with him is the only way we can turn from sin.  

Just like the weeds in our yard, we cannot expect Jesus to come in and do a sweep of our life and just remove our sin. It is a process, not to be completed at any juncture throughout our time but involving many projects, stemmed from our relationship and communication with him.

If we never spent time with our friends, how would we get to know them, or what they want or how we could serve them? We desire that time to know them better, and so does Jesus. Jesus is fully man, and fully God, naturally he seeks the same relationship as we do with each other. What if our friendships were only spent asking each other for things, or yelling at each other, or telling our problems to each other. I would hate that, I probably would start distancing myself from that person. I constantly have to remind myself not to constantly do this with God, but build my relationship with him like any other. It takes time, it takes struggle, it takes effort, but it pays off and just like our relationships with friends, we do not say “I’m Finished” to God and cut off the relationship.

As we get to know Him, learn about His love, His grace, His mercy; we begin to also learn His will, His desires, and His power. This is the exciting part of the process, once we see the fruits of our labors, we pres on, wanting more. And as we learn more and more, we realize the truth of our wretched lives, and the gravity of our sin, but also the Power of salvation. This power is not to be hidden, but shared. Our process of a relationship is not a selfish one, it is one to be shown.

In my opinion, one of the most powerfulverses in the bible is in John 19, when Jesus is hanging on the cross, and his last words before his spirit was given up were this “It is finished” He promised living water, and he thirsted, he poured everything out before he went up. He is the only one with the authority, foresight, and power to utter those words. 

How often are we saying it is finished in the process?

John 19: 28-30

“Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

If I had to title this chapter of my life, I would call it Revelations. God is constantly revealing himself to me in new ways, exciting ways, many ways. One of the ways God is constantly getting to me is through conviction. The funny thing is, conviction sucks in a lot of ways. I talk to a lot of people, from students to adults that talk about their dread of conviction. I rejoice in it. 

The same God that created the heavens and the earth, you and me, and everything in between, cares enough about me and my life to convict me of my sin, and guide me to righteousness. It is humbling, but also so exhilarating, how fortunate am I?

Very fortunate.

Fortunate that I am saved by a graceful and merciful God, fortunate to lead the life I do, fortunate to have a support system that stands me up when I fall, and helps me grow stronger, fortunate to live. I am very fortunate.

In this fortune, my greatest treasure is Christ, and as I grow in relationship with him, his weight in my eyes, my heart, and my thoughts grows with me. When it comes to Christ, we are all lucky, but some of us cannot find this fortune. Excuses are made abundantly to delay this fortune. What if everyone had the haste of the man in Matthew 13:44? 

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

I get that guy, I understand his passion, his excitement, his reckless abandon for the treasure. I have tasted, and I have seen that the Lord is good. So now when I feel the conviction he lays heavy on my heart, I see it as love, his pursuit after me. How awesome is that? How awesome is it that our omnipotent God is in full pursuit of us? An unrelenting chase. So as I feel the haste of the treasurer listed above, and the love of God, I have a hard time feeling anything but excitement. Excitement that the fortune he has provided me with is fulfilling, peaceful, graceful, powerful. How could such a gift be free?

Because God is God, and God is good. his love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me.

Are you seeking the treasure as rapidly as it is seeking you?

I had a strange realization this morning at church. As Pastor Jeff (or PJ as I like to refer to him) was talking about the beginning of man, he was talking about how Adam and Eve had everything. Perfect life, perfect relationship, perfect everything. They could go through life freely, no worries, AND were in constant communication with God. Obviously, that was not enough. It must have been a gene, because we have not changed in all that time. We always want more.

More money, bigger houses, better food, smarter kids, we always want more, and it started in the garden…..thanks Eve, thanks a lot. The bible has numerous verses on contentment, especially in regards to money. I talk about our culture so often, but it is constantly impacting our lives. 

For a personal example, it says in Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ’I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” I already break this verse within the first 8 words, I love money….a lot. As much as I like to say it is not important or I am getting over it, I do love money. More than that, I could substitute multiple things in that spot other than money; lust, greed, pride, selfishness, etc. All things I struggle with, all things I am called to give up. It says keep your life free from these, and be content. Be content not because God wants us to be poor, but because of the last section there. He will never leave us, He will never forsake us. Never.

That is a promise that we have a hard time grasping. Maybe because it challenges us, maybe because “never” usually means I will try not to. We are not used to relationships that are perfect, and 100% fulfilling. Though our relationship with Christ may be strained at times, it is not because of what he has done, it is because of what we consistently do. 

Our sin is a lie blanketed in reason, skillfully and unfortunately placed into our lives. 

I have noticed in my own walk, the times I feel most content and confident in Christ are not when I have everything going for me, but when I have a lot against me. It makes sense to me, when I am struggling in the flesh, it is easier to lean on God, because he is God and I am not. Loving God is not about trusting him to dig you out of the ditches you fell into, but trusting him to guide you around those ditches. My contentment in Christ, my trust in our Father is strengthening. How can I deny the words of God “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”? I have learned if I cannot trust God, I should not be able to trust anyone; and I trust a lot of people. It says in 1 Timothy 6:6-8 “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” The statement there of gain in godliness with contentment excited me. Godliness is what we seek, to be like Christ is how we are called, and to be content is to walk in that calling. We have everything we need. I am going to make a conscious effort to let that be enough, and more. Like Eve, I will stare at the apple, but I do not want to grab it.

How can you make everything enough?

My sister constantly tries to figure the password out on my phone so she can play Angry Birds. Some people I trust with my password, some people I don’t. As soon as I changed my password yesterday, I thought to myself, “I am gonna need to show this to ____, so they can still get on my phone.” It made me wonder, how many people know my emotional password?

We are told in Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life”

Some people I trust in any circumstance, but there are others that I would not tell anything, its a way of defense for me. When it comes to relationships with friends, family, dating, we all have different standards and levels of trust, but God’s orders are blatant. Guard your heart. When we compromise the state of our heart, the springs of life (which should be strong, and Christ filled) will also be compromised, rendering us much less useful. 

This idea of guarding our heart is complicated, multi-faceted, and often confusing. Watch TV for an hour, and the likelihood of seeing some sort of an unguarded heart  or reckless emotional abandon is very high. This shows how flooded our world is with this inevitability of heartbreak. These influences, primarily from our peers and the media are negative in many ways. With everything being so anti-biblical, we are learning from a young age not how to succeed emotionally, but to fail.

For example, a past “dating” relationship I was in was filled with wrong morals, and terrible actions. At no point would I say the relationship was healthy looking back on it. Here is the catch, everything we did was totally acceptable and encouraged when paralleled with the media. As I left the relationship, I was haggard, worn, hurt. To an extent, I was heart broken. My relationship was not much different than many that currently happen in high school. This is agonizing to me. Kids are giving their passwords to anyone who asks. They are more protective of their facebook accounts than their emotional boundaries. This sort of upbringing and influence is what leads to negative, hurtful, ultimately heart breaking relationships. We are led to believe that we should hand over our hearts to create love. Since love flows from the heart, we are under this false impression that if we give it to whoever, that will automatically create a lasting bond. We are not fulfilling Proverbs 4 with this lifestyle. We need to develop trust among one another, but most of all, we need to find our satisfaction in something bigger than us. If we are constantly seeking our fulfillment in things that will fade, or are equally sinful as us, we are not building our house on rock, but on sand as it says in Matthew 7. 

²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

As discouraging as it is to look at our society and see all of the destruction that goes on, I am grateful to now know the truth, and have it as my guide. I will seek my fulfillment and my pleasure and my love from Christ, and in that Joy, I will be able to overflow to others, whether it be a friend, a sibling, or a stranger. I will keep my password guarded, just as I am called and I will trust the Lord with my actions and guidance. Phillipans 4:6-7 says this:

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus

Are you trusting God to help you guard your heart? Or is your password being sent around..

I love Hawaiian Ice. In the summer, I will often go to this little shack by my house multiple times a week, I just love it. Every time I go, I get a varied size depending on who I am with and how hungry I am, but I always get the flavor Tiger’s Blood. Always.

Today My sister offered me to try her Dreamsicle hawaiian ice, one of the 30 some odd flavors they offer. I rejected with the statement “Nah, I love tiger’s blood, and I don’t need to try anything else.” Thats when my idea for this post was planted. What if there is another flavor that is just as good as Tiger’s Blood? What if there is a flavor that is better? 

I am so scared of not liking something new, and so comfortable with my choice, I do not feel any need or desire to try something new, but I could seriously be missing out! I see a parallel with our faith as Christians here.

How often are we missing out on something better that God has for us because we are scared or comfortable? How often do we say “Nah, I’m good.” to God?

We are called to boldness in our faith. Throughout the bible we see acts of radical boldness for Christ, Matthew left his work immediately as Jesus called him, Paul killed Christians before he knew Jesus, but his boldness for him after meeting led to wild persecution.

So when I see something God may be calling me into, and I disagree or dislike it, my first instinct is to stay with what I know, what I am comfortable with, or at least go at it with my own reservations. Thats not how we are called, we are called to act with boldness, and fearlessness. In Luke chapter 9, it says this

 ⁶¹ Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

 ⁶² Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

It is written pretty clear there, we should not be hesitant, but all in, risking it for God. Even if it means leaving our families, how fun does that sound? But when we risk it for God, we get responses like this, later in Luke 18

  ²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰ will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Again, the statement is clear. We should be motivated by this, the reason I like this passage so much is vs 30 where it says we receive many times more in THIS LIFE and eternal life. Jesus promises a return here, I like guaranteed profit, especially when it is by Christ.

I am going to start trying new flavors when I get hawaiian ice now. I am sure I will frequently go back to tiger’s blood, but I want to experience new things, taste the rainbow. As for God, I will follow him, And I will do my darndest not to stick with one flavor, if that means discomfort, so be it. He promised me it would be worth it, and if I can’t trust God I can’t trust anything.

Are you experiencing all of what God has for you? Or are you sticking with one flavor of your faith?

A wise young woman told me recently, God does not typically give you a blueprint of your life, but a scroll. Where you unravel it section by section, some faster than others. This theory is incredibly relevant and true. And I hate it.

I am not a planner, I am not organized, I do not know what I am going to do for the rest of the week, let alone the rest of my life, I have a rough sketch, in pencil, that is very much open to interpretation and change and erasing….a sketch. But when it comes to God. I have a different attitude, I want to know everything! I want to know exactly what I need to do now, next week, next year, and forever, because then I will see the promises he has for me coming to fruition, I will see how I delight in his word, I will see everything, and everything will be good…right? Wrong.

God is the architect, we are the construction workers. 

If we knew every aspect of what was going to happen we would cut corners. We would try to jump the gun, but hey, its all for God right? If we knew the plan, what kind of faith would it take to be a Christian? No faith. If I knew what I was going to do in ten years, I could formulate my own plan to get there, but my will is the antithesis of Thy will. Because after all, in Exodus 3, the Lord says to Moses, “I AM” which ineveitably leaves me as I AM NOT. I am not omnipotent, I am not perfect, I am not blameless, I am not GOD, I am man, And I am sinful.

I would try to put the floor in before the walls were up, there would be no stairs in the house of life I built, But God, he knows how to build a house. He built the house we all look forward to, So why is it so hard for us to trust him to design our house?

God’s love, his kindness, his mercy and grace, they all are more abundant then the water of the ocean, but we cannot see them, not like we see money. We desire fulfillment, which he freely offers, but we cannot feel it as readily as we can seek pleasure in the flesh. The promises he offers only come through one thing, and that is Faith. Faith in his son, the one who died for our sins, so we could make it to HIS HOUSE. Through that faith we learn how to feel love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, as it lists in Galatians 5:22. Patience and obedience in Christ as they are developed are what start to unravel our plans, not us trying to make them ourselves. We should not be checking our work with God, we should let God show us how to work. 

So often we want to know God’s will for selfish reasons, so that we can avoid suffering, or frustration, or anything else with a negative connotation. We want to be happy, without any of the work that it takes to get to happiness, but Joy comes only through Christ. Only through a relationship with our one true love, the love that defines love. When we experience that Love, and have faith in our God, we will start to unravel our plan, and knowing you are walking in Him will begin to bring fulfillment, not pleasure — that will fade. We will realize we do not need to know the future, because the future will deal with itself, but the present is what God wants us to focus on. He is our Architect, are we working for him? Or trying to outdo him?

Matthew 6:34

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own

Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, 
   and he will establish your plans.

I saw a commercial today that gave me some perspective today. The only part of the commercial I remember, and care about was a zoomed out picture of an empty athletics locker, with the name still on it.

It made me wonder, what happens when our locker is empty? I am going to compare sports seasons to life seasons, here goes.

Some of my fondest memories from high school are from football. You spend literally days and weeks of time at the school, on the field, in the locker room. I invested more time into that than anything else, and I like to think I excelled at it. Each season at the beginning we would pick our lockers by our friends and teammates, and I would fill it with my gear, what I would need for practice, and for game time, and each year we would get a nameplate to define that it was MY locker.

Throughout the year, things came out, things got left but the constant was always my nameplate and the locker itself. I always had those two things, no matter how bad it smelled, or how dirty it was. On gameday, they would be cleaned up  decorated by the cheerleaders or parents and we would have candy and all kinds of treats given to us, and by monday it was messy again, with all my ratty smelly football junk. but at the end of the season, we would clean it out, and take everything home, just to do it all over the next summer, but after senior year, things were a bit different. I would not be loading my stuff back in the following June, would not have a nameplate to claim my stake, but that locker was going to be filled by someone else.

Its a long lead up, but i find a crazy similarity to my life here. The Bible clearly talks about different seasons of life. I see that not just as my physical timeline, but also as a reference to spiritual seasons. We have ups and downs, slump and success, but one thing always remains. Love. The love of God, expressed in the most passionate way in Christ, on the cross, and ressurecting. Just like football seasons, we have our spiritual seasons, and some are better than others. Like my football locker, through my spiritual seasons, I am putting different things in and different things are coming out. Whether it be time, money, effort into church, reading my bible, or sharing my faith, things are always moving around. Sometimes they get cleaned and brushed up, sometimes they get messy and stinky. But one thing always remains, and that is Christ, he is my locker. I can rely on him, no matter what goes in, and what comes out of my spiritual life. Whether I am mad, happy, excited, terrified, I can always know that He is there, and he is reliable. 

Who am I training to take over my locker after my senior season of life?

When my nameplate comes down, is God going to be pleased with the next nameplate that goes up?  Who am I discipling, so that in the seasons of life, when I move on, whether it be because I am called elsewhere, or called to heaven (aka I die), have I fulfilled the Great Commission? 

“ 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, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

-Matthew 28: 19-20

At no point in that scripture is there a question mark, or a doubt that it is anything less than a command, from God. It is my duty to disciple, to lead, to guide, to mentor, to love; just like Christ did. I want my locker to be filled with shoes greater than mine and I am going to seek hard after the lord so that I can fulfill his order,

Who is filling your locker? or is anyone…