"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."   At once they left their nets and followed him.
-Matthew 4:19-20 NIV 

One of the most frustrating hurdles to deal with when raising children is when the child appears to be “chronologically challenged”.  In other words when our wishes or instructions, as the blessed provider and mentor of our little carbon copies, becomes lost or confused in translation, detached from its relationship to time and space. It’s when the stated or implied time factor that accompanies our request retranslates from “NOW” to “when I get around to fitting it into my already set agenda”.

As adults, we would like to think we have moved beyond this childish inability to synchronize our lives with the lives of those around us, but unfortunately, in many instances, such is not the case. We simply become more polished and extenuate in our rational of why a sense of urgency may be unrealistic for us or at the very least, misappropriated at this time. Another way of saying this is we have better perfected our excuse-o-meters for not taking action.

We find this same practice, in higher frequency sadly, in the ministry of God’s kingdom as well. We act as though the instruction we receive from the word of God regarding our role in the building of this kingdom has with it an open and flexible timeframe, a ministerial cafeteria option as it were regarding the fulfillment of the great commission.

When Jesus called his first disciples out of the world, there was no hesitation, no debate, they didn’t first check to see if their TiVo’s were set or what the athletic department had planned. They recognized the Son of God’s authority even though they may not have understood it…and obeyed. We, as disciples called out of the world also are obligated and expected to react, to move when the Spirit and the word of God says MOVE. To smash the excuse-o-meters and engage in Kingdom construction when called, not when it fits.

Pastor Craig