My name is Josh Bruce and I am 26 years old. I have spent more than half my life trying to wrap my mind around the God that created all of this. I mean what is it to “go and make disciples of all nations…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” What does that mean? What does that look like? As for me I was definitely not going to take that literally. I am far too comfortable living my house hanging out with my wife and friends. I figured why go to all the nations when I live in one right now. (On a side note: I have been married for about 3 years. Long before we met my wife understood what Jesus was saying by “go to all nations,” Africa in particular. That is what she wanted to do. Then we meet and get married and you can imagine the tension that surrounded this topic in our marriage.) However through much pray and discussion I began to see what Jesus was saying outside my own desires.
Around this time an organization was forming called The 410 Bridge. They partner churches in America with communities in Kenya. My wife and I decided to go on one of their short term trips. Let me tell you as much as I was excited about going I was scared to death. Not of leaving America but the thought of me liking it too much sacred me. I wanted to go but not leave everything behind. I wanted to go and feel good that I went but be able to come back to MY home; because like I said earlier it is much too comfortable and might I add too easy to sit in my house. About the same time from my best friend I caught wind of this dude. His name is Shane Claiborne. I began to read his book “Irresistible Revolution” and I curse him for it because it made me feel so uncomfortable. However his book gave me a modern day visual context by which I could wrap Jesus’ words around.
What does it mean to “go and make disciples of all nations…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” For my wife and I it means participating in The World Race. To be honest is scares the hell out of me to think about sometimes. But still there is something deep inside me that yearns for what God is doing around the world. Living the American dream and being comfortable all the while God is in the background just does not work anymore. So in my mind I am going for it, stepping out there and becoming an “ordinary radical”; willing for God to do things to me and also to do things through me.
