The Mission

October 26, 2008 in Articles Comments off

I asked a friend of mine, Jonathan Schrodt, to write an article for my site. I pretty much just asked him to share what he felt was strong on his heart. Jonathan is the type of guy who realizes that he is not perfect but feels strongly that obedience to Jesus is an important aspect of living the Christian life. This article is really going to challenge some people so feel free to interact with Jonathan through the comments section below.

 

So there I was riding the DART Rail again for the 3rd month in a row. I had a backpack in one hand and was keeping my bicycle steady in the other as the train moved south along Highway 75. It was evening, and I was anxious to get home. There was a girl that I wanted to call the second I got back.

Just to give a little background: I was riding the Rail because I had no other means of transportation. I had a silver, 4-door Saturn that I had wrecked a few months before. The total cost of repairs: a conveniently round number of $2,000 (No joke). I didn’t exactly have that kind of dough saved up, so I was debating with myself about getting a student loan to pay for the repairs. After all, I felt like I needed a car. Come on, it’s Dallas for crying out loud! How can anyone get around without a car. 3 solid months of riding the DART Rail and my bicycle to school and my two jobs convinced me that a car is not necessarily a need. I was getting around fine. It took a little bit more time and planning, but I was getting where I needed to be.

Back to that telling night: All I could think about was what questions I was going to ask this beautiful, Christian gal. She was incredible! She not only had looks, but she also had a tender heart and amazing gifts that she used to praise God with! It had been a long day and I was tired, but thinking about this girl had my heart pumping and I could not wait a second longer to get home.

As I was contemplating this upcoming conversation, a fellow with a long hair and a bicycle came onto the train a few stops before my destination. He had mud all over his bike and his pants. He looked at me kind of sheepishly and said, "It’s amazing how easy it is to find mud when you ride at night." I chuckled along with him thinking this guy was interesting. I asked him where he was going. He said, "I’m headed to the hospital to see my mom." Immediately I knew this conversation was taking a serious turn. Being more polite than concerned, I asked him why. The gentleman began to tell me his mother had had some serious, chronic, acid reflux that had caused her esophagus to erode away so badly that one day she sneezed, and it ruptured. He looked at me with a concealed sadness in his eyes and told me he didn’t think she would make it through the night.

Immediately I felt my heart break and heard the voice of the Holy Spirit saying to me, "Ask to ride with him to the hospital and pray for her and for his whole family." I (inwardly) retorted, "But God, I have plans to call this beautiful girl! Plus, if I go with this guy to downtown, I won’t get home till really late" (it was already 9:10pm-ish). Again He replied, "Jonathan, go with this man." I literally sat and fought the Holy Spirit on this till I reached my stop. I had already made up my mind…I was going home to call this gal. I got up, looked at the man with sad eyes and said, "Good luck with your Mom." REALLY?!? ‘Good luck’ is all I could say?!?

As I rode off, I started crying like a baby. I had turned down an opportunity to step out in faith and demonstrate the love of Christ with a complete stranger…for a girl. Now, I don’t mean to say that this great woman is the reason I failed here, but where my heart was and what it was focused on is what led to me pass up to seeing God move in an incredible way. It was obvious that I had something in my heart that was more important than God and His mission. 

I tell this story to bring to light a trend in American Christianity: So often, we put ourselves above the mission of God. I am guilty of this in some of the worst ways. I have discovered that the greatest threat to the Mission of God (Missio Dei) is not Satan, the World, or sin…but myself. That’s right. Me. A believer and follower of Jesus the Christ is the greatest threat to the Missio Dei. When I want something more than I want God, I have an idol. I wanted a date with a woman more than I wanted to see God use me in an incredible way and I was willing to sacrifice something that could have had an eternal impact for a girl that I wound up not even dating.

Three years ago, I took advantage of an opportunity to go on a ‘Vision’ trip to the church in Milan, Italy. Since that summer, I have had a passion and vigor for missions that I have never had my entire life. In that gathering of believers I witnessed the Glory of God like I never had before! These believers were living out scripture. They looked a lot like the group I had read about in Acts 2. They, though only 80 strong in the midst of a city that inhabits 5 million Italians, were living out the ways of "The Way." It changed my heart forever.

Being armed with God’s Word, His Holy Spirit, a clear vision and mission for His Kingdom, I am daily training, preparing and making my way back into the overseas arenas of the earth to see God’s great Commission come to fulfillment (though it may not happen in my life). Sometimes though, I get distracted. My whole life, until about 3 years ago, was oriented around myself and not Jesus. My thoughts were, "Who am I going to marry? What job should I get? What kind of car should I drive? What kind of salary am I aiming for?" Missio Dei was the last thing on my heart or mind. And yet, I just glazed over Jesus’ words in Matthew, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." I thought that if I’m going to love God this way, it’s going to have to be on my terms. Psh! Wrong! When God says that ‘He is love’, we don’t have any options of loving God on any terms BUT His. I am creature…He is creator. I needed transformation.

Had it not been for a certain individual coming into my life and discipling me, I would never have come to truly understand what it means to love God and love my neighbor. ‘Discipleship’ has been the greatest tool/method that God has used in my life for gaining a perspective of the Kingdom of God and being apart of bringing it here to Earth! After all, making ‘disciples’ was exactly what Jesus commanded us to do along with baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded us.

Why did I turn down a direct order from my King that night on the train? Had I bought into what culture says about ‘finding that special someone’ as the means to my true fulfillment? What about the media? Advertising? Is culture even to blame? Maybe the Church is to blame? OR could it be that I am truly the one to blame, though often the last one to accept this truth?