Go Out and Make Disciples

The best life to live is one without enemies. This is what I hold in my heart as truth. I try not to pick fights, hold grudges, or make other people into opponents. I make it my goal to get along with everyone, even if it is difficult.

Still, I fall short of this goal. I find myself at odds with certain people. When someone pushes me to a certain point, it’s hard to get past my resentment. It almost feels impossible. So I decide to take the easy way out, where I won’t even try to move past my negative emotions.

After a friend turns out to be someone entirely different from who I had thought they were, they become unapproachable. I can hardly make eye contact with them, even. I have this awful habit of deciding that when it’s over, it’s over. I falsely believe that it’s not God who decides who will enter and leave my life, but me.

When a friendship ends, I want it to be over for good. I want to wrap it up in a tidy box and put it on a high shelf to be forgotten about. But it’s never really over, not while we’re both still breathing. That’s when I start to pretend that I don’t hear that person’s voice, that I never accidentally meet their eyes, and that I don’t miss them with every fiber of my being. That’s when they become a ghost. Rarely seen or heard, but always felt.

This isn’t what God intended for my life. Other people shouldn’t ever be my enemies. The only enemy I have is sin, and I’ve been foolish enough to let the Enemy turn ordinary people into weapons against me.

Today, I will let this turn around.

I recently spoke with someone who managed to turn my entire world upside down. It was a simple conversation, really. Nothing deep, nothing that stood out. Still, it completely changed how I view that person and our entire relationship.

I’ll put this into context. This is a person who used to be very close to me, but due to certain conflicts, departed from my life. We both decided that it was best to just cut off contact and to never speak again. This was foolish and shortsighted of me, but in the heat of the moment I decided that our friendship was over, finished, and done.

God, as always, had different plans.

Out of nowhere, I found myself face-to-face with this person. Astoundingly, we had a normal conversation. It was as if nothing had ever happened between us, that we were still friends like we had been before. It was…nice. It felt so wonderful, and it plagued my thoughts for days.

I remember thinking for months that there were so many things I wanted to say to this person if I ever got the chance. These thoughts built up in my heart for so long, then when I finally had the opportunity to release them, I realized that there was truly nothing left to say. That chapter of our lives had closed. What really shook my world was the realization that the book itself was not yet finished.

God had taken this person out of my life for a reason, I believe, but this wasn’t a permanent arrangement. If it was, then we wouldn’t had ended up face-to-face.

As we chatted, normally, about something silly and forgettable, I remember thinking, Is this how things could have been all along?

Where have you been all this time?

Why did I ever let go?

It had been weighing on my heart for quite some time that I must minister to those around me better. I must share the Word with everyone I possibly can. I don’t get to cherry-pick who these people are. The light of the Lord must grace everyone in my presence, no matter how messy our history may be.

Matthew 28:19-20 says,

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

What God has called us to do as followers of Christ doesn’t come with terms and conditions. We are to love and to minister. Period. We don’t get to negotiate those terms, so we must follow them instead. It’s not easy, but there is no easy path to Him. I must do what I have been called to do if I am to devote every little piece of my life to Christ.

I dare you to go and make disciples of everybody. Don’t fret about your history with anyone, just focus on your future with them in the kingdom of God. Bless everyone you encounter, and let His light shine through you.

May God bless you.