God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

Last post we saw how Jesus shared with Peter how Peter would die in a similar fashion to the way Jesus died. And we looked at Peter’s response to that news. Peter looked at John and said, “What about him?” (see previous post But What About Him?)

Jesus replied to Peter, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (John 21:23)

Straightening Out a Rumor

Immediately following that statement by Jesus, Jesus’ disciple John, the writer of this Gospel of John, takes a moment to share the truth about a rumor concerning John. He writes that because of what Jesus said about John, “the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?'”

There’s evidence in early church writings to indicate John was the only disciple who wasn’t martyred. So he didn’t die in the same way as Peter. But he did indeed die.

John Was There

In the second to last verse of the Gospel of John, John shares this:

“This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” (John 21:24)

John is saying, I was there. I was there when Jesus made the blind see. I was there when Jesus freed people from demons, I was there when Jesus fed the 5,000. I was there when he shared the good news about himself. I was there when he was betrayed. I was there when he was wrongly accused and wrongly convicted. I was even there when he was crucified, though others were scattered. I saw all these things for myself. And I’m sharing what I saw with you now, in this book.

All the Things Jesus Did

The last verse of the book of John, verse 25 says, “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

All the things Jesus did. Amazing things. Wonderful things. Beautiful things. Everything, he did, he did in love. And everything he did counted.

All the Things We Do

That’s how I want to live my life. I want what I do to count. I want all the things I do to please God. It’s the only way of living that makes sense to me. Doing things for Jesus, doing what Jesus commanded us to do, following him closely, this is what counts.

The things I do in love the way Jesus did things in love, these are the only things I do that will last.

So as Bob Goff wrote, I must “do what lasts, and get around to everything else.”

Jesus said it this way, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)

I need to prioritize what moth and rust cannot destroy. I need to prioritize what thieves cannot break in and steal.

And what can’t be destroyed is love.

What can’t be stolen is love.

Love for God.

And love for the people around me.

Sometimes, as I do what lasts and “get around” to those things that can be destroyed, some of my friends and family won’t understand me. But in the end, that doesn’t matter. In the end what matters is what God thinks.

And God understands.