As you sent me into the world, I have sent them.
JOHN 17:18
Jesus owned the cross so that he could make a way across the nightmarish abyss, enabling us to walk through the gap too, bringing his love and hope and change to a world engulfed by the dark, screaming in fear. He loves us, chooses us, and makes us whole not only for his pleasure but so that we might join him in reaching a world otherwise lost. He is passionate to save the world and gave his life for that very reason. God “did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). Jesus commissioned us to go into that same world and shine his light in the darkness so that others may be rescued and set free.
And yet we slumber. We sleep.
When Jesus said to go into all the world, he didn’t mean to wait until morning, or until you get the right job, or find the perfect spouse, or have finished raising the kids, or have your house in order, or find a spare weekend. Christ brought us light in the darkness so that we can reach everyone living a nightmare now. He longs to shake us awake so that we can shout out the truth — that humankind is made for eternity but trapped in time, and time is running out. He means for us to be a lantern in the darkness. He means for us to find and rescue others because we know what it is to be lost and then found, hurting and then healed.
He means for us to walk into the gap where he’s thrown down the cross, to walk like him, to walk with him.
Unwilling to stay asleep.
Unafraid of the dark.
Unflinching in the face of disappointment.
Unstoppable in the face of difficulty.
Undaunted.
MOMENT OF REFLECTION
Where will you go for God?
What will you do — undaunted?