Jesus basically has two primary invitations for us in this world, as Christians and non-Christians alike.
The first is to come and see. As in, come check out and see what is going on in the community or the church, or the town. Come and see what I am doing, who I am healing, what I am saying, and what I will be doing. Come and see how I can change your life and the life of others, which can then lead to a transformation of the world.
This world can be a marvelous place, but it starts with you taking the initiative to come and check out all that is going on.
Scripture tells us:
They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” (John 1:38-39)
We, too, are to emulate Christ’s invitational nature, even if it means we must reach outside of our comfort zone.
How are we to invite others to come and see?
For starters, we can invite friends, family and even strangers alike to partake in that which we feel and deem as worthy and impactful. Yes, we have to take the time or build up the courage to ask someone to come with us, or to come join us, and stay a while and see exactly what this whole Jesus thing is all about.
We need to be people who tell others: “Come and see.” You just never know who you might touch, impact or influence.
We truly can be the difference in the world. We have a choice every morning of whether we want to be a positive person or a negative one. We have a choice of whether we want to go out and invite others to come and see, or stay in and put our head in the sand and assume everything is hunky dory in the world. We can make it a goal to invite one person a day, a week or a month to come and see who this whole Jesus Christ person is.
Not everyone knows who Jesus is or what it means to be part of a church. Perhaps all they need is that simple question and invitation of asking: “Won’t you come and join me one Sunday?”
Following that invitation, we have the other one that Christ encourages: To go out and do. Essentially, once we have come to see, to check out, to discover, to learn, and to equip ourselves, we are admonished to go out into the world and share those learnings and findings with others.
In doing so, we ensure that we do not hoard all this goodness and fruit to ourselves; and instead, share it freely with others. Perhaps in going out and doing we run into someone at the grocery store who has been curious as to what we have been doing in church and how we could possibly be so loving, faithful and positive in our life. Maybe we find that friend of ours or even a stranger needs some kind of help, and by going out we are provided a chance to invite them in.
Whatever the case may be, we need to invite, and we need to take initiative to go out and do.
Maybe we should ask ourselves these questions:
What is the next faithful thing God is calling and inviting us to do?
How are we, in our context, to make a way for the Lord even as we await his coming?
How can I make a difference in myself, my family, my church, my community, and in my world?
It is when we allow Christ into our hearts that we allow ourselves to become transformed and invite our loved ones to experience this challenging yet rewarding process of being a Christian and following Christ.