Go (Lent #30)

Go.

Just leave.  Get away from here.

Such a little word.  How can it carry so much pain?

I don’t want you.  I don’t like you.  Go.

Have you been told to go?  I suspect most of us have.  Perhaps you’ve even asked another to leave. Either way, when we get to that point, we are hurting.

 

But there is anther way to hear “go”.

It is what I mean when I frequently tell those I care about, “Go Team!”

No pain or sorrow here. Instead this is an affirmation.  This is pleasure and rejoicing.

Go!  You can do it.  You are good.  Things are great.

Such a little word.  How can it carry so much excitement?

 

Jesus told his followers (and thereby those who would follow him), to “Go and make disciples…”

I wonder if any of them thought of the difficulty of that go, of the struggle that lay ahead?  Did they hear the promise and the confidence Jesus spoke over them?  Did they hear go as an adventure or as a curse?

How do we, those who claim to be Christ-followers, hear it today?

Maybe it’s not so cut and dry.

Sometimes following is a grand and glorious opportunity.  Sometimes… not-so-much.

The difference in how I hear this command may be in how I perceive Jesus.

Is he abandoning me to do this work on my own? Is he casting me adrift?  Is he throwing me into the deep end to sink or swim?

Or

Is he with me all the way?  Is he cheering me on?  Is he offering all that he is so I can be all that I am?

The next time I shout out “Go Team!”, I pray those I engage are encouraged and enlivened.  I want my go to be an announcement that joy is bursting out, that life is exploding with possibility, that we are in this crazy thing called life together.  And in case you missed it before…

Life is better together,
Shawn

GO TEAM!