Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples … and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. Matthew 28:19-20
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. 2 Timothy 2:2
Jesus told his disciples to make disciples. He didn’t tell them to make believers, or converts, or even Christians, but to make disciples like themselves. Disciples are much more committed than believers, or converts, or those who “pray the prayer,” or those who fold over the little corner of the registration card indicating they have accepted Christ as their personal savior. A disciple doesn’t just have a foot in the door; a disciple is all in. Look at the twelve — they left everything behind to follow Christ. They left their families, their jobs, their future plans and went with Jesus for three years. And during that time Jesus taught them. He taught them separately; He taught them in groups; He taught the crowds with them next to Him and then explained to them later, privately, about the more difficult things He said. He taught them while they walked along the countryside. He taught them in boats, in houses, on the shore, on the mountain, in the city, in the temple. I doubt there was ever a time when He was not teaching them. He didn’t teach them in a seminar, or a weekend retreat, or an 8-week course, or a semester class, He taught them in life, and class was always in session.
If you had been somehow able to view from outside the bathroom window, the conversation I once had with my wife, (why is it that all meaningful conversations in my house happen in the bathroom or the kitchen?) you would have wondered what that crazy woman was doing bouncing back and forth, hopping first on one foot, then the other, and at twelve midnight no less. What she was trying to do was have me grasp the significance of what she calls “Forgiveness now!” or if that doesn’t capture it, maybe “You can’t outrun your forgiveness” will help.
Today, the world mourns the death of its funniest man, who, in the end, couldn’t find that last laugh that might have prevented him from taking his own life. He assumed so many personalities except the one he needed the most — himself. He was uncomfortable in his own shoes, so he got used to everyone else’s, and for that reason, he had a huge amount of compassion for people from all walks of life, in all situations. No one could stand in someone else’s shoes better than Robin Williams.
John Fischer The Catch 