If You Want It Done Right, .....

Graduation season is upon us and once again, we send forth our educated students into the world to continue the task of being a light to the nations and of successfully fulfilling their calling in life.  There is an underlying assumption that they are prepared and will do a good job.  However, there also is a well-known saying that "If you want something done right, ....."  Do it yourself, right?  

Jesus disagrees!   

In Luke 6:40, Jesus stated "Everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.  His demonstrated answer to the question, "If you want something done right," is to teach them and equip them.  He taught them, equipped them, let them "try" doing it, and gave the assignment and encouragement to continue the work. 

Let's consider Jesus' example.  He chose the twelve, taught them truth, let them observe His behavior, allowed them to witness His miracles, and them sent them out in power to do the works.  After He blessed them and ascended into heaven, He enabled them with Someone to remind them of what He taught, to guide them into all truth, and to fulfill the enabling promise of having  "the exceeding greatness of His power." (Ephesians 1:19).  At the conclusion of it all He will extend the most powerful words of accomplishment, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

All creation shows God's handiwork and there are patterns in nature which demonstrate the amazing truth of the next generation continuing what the first started.  One of these is the migration of the Monarch butterfly. Each September some 500,000 monarch butterflies migrate from southern Canada to wintering sites in central Mexico arriving in November.  However, what makes this a spectacular natural phenomenon is that no individual lives long enough to complete the trip.  Female monarchs lay eggs for a subsequent generation during the southward migration, which as the next generation come forth, they continue the mission.  This process involves four generations to complete the annual cycle. 

Clearly the mission of completing the work of Jesus and bringing the Good News of salvation in Jesus to "every creature" requires each generation to impart the message and equip the next to do the task.  Therefore, the most important work of this generation is to prepare the next generation with the Christian foundation of Jesus and His Word to "go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20).

If the student will become like his teacher, it behooves the teacher to be like the Lord Jesus.  Paul says, "imitate me and I imitate Christ."  Jesus prayed in John 17, "I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth."  One of David's requests of God was "Teach me thy ways."  The point is that we, this generation, must press in to know God and His ways, in order to effectively impart this life-giving pattern to the next generation. 

Of course, the ending of the great commission is that Jesus is with you always, until the end of the age.  Therefore, do not get weary in continuing yourself to grow into Him and in teaching young people to know the Lord and His ways.  The work will be done right, when we equip them and teach them to do it right.