A Hard Reset
I once heard an old parable in a sermon, which goes like this:
One day, a man wearing a coat was standing out in a field. As the wind and the sun were looking down, the wind said to the sun, “I’ll bet I can remove his coat from him quicker than you can!” The sun accepted the challenge.
As the wind began to blow, the man immediately grabbed onto his coat. The gusts increased in strength, but the man only clutched harder. Finally, the wind gave up.
Now, it was the sun’s turn. The sun emerged from the clouds, warming up the entire landscape.
After a short while, the man felt the warmth and removed his coat.
The point of the parable is to illustrate the difference between internal and external forces. While the external force of the wind sought to pry the coat away from the man, the internal force of the warmth from the sun induced a natural response of the man removing the coat himself.
A similar theme underpins this week’s scripture, as Jesus lays out the two greatest commandments in Mark 12:29-31: To “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” (30) and to “love your neighbor as
yourself.” (31)
Notice how “love your neighbor as yourself” comes after “love the Lord your God.” We know that the most important love for anyone is God. But there is an important sequential component to this. We are not able to offer Christ’s love to our neighbors if we do not love Him first. He is the source. Loving Him is the vital internal force, which motivates us to obey all that He commands.
This was an important message from Jesus to a crowd of scribes whose religion was defined by an endless list of rules. In essence, He said, “None of your rules matter if you don’t first love Me.”
I find it easy to make this mistake when going about my own spiritual disciplines. I’ve been in the church for the past decade of my life and have always been heavily involved in various ministries. There is no other way I would want to spend my time. However, I have learned that even my participation in God’s work can easily become polluted with my fleshly agendas if I’m not careful. When perfectionism and pride creep in, my work becomes an obsession, my patience with others wears thin, and it eventually becomes outwardly evident that my heart is not in the right place. My effectiveness in serving God is diminished.
As creatures who were created for worship, we have to choose an object for our worship. The enemy knows this and will find any periphery want or motive that he can deceive us into worshipping above God. While ministry involvement and daily disciplines are important in our service to the Lord, they are mere external forces. There is no substitute for a heart that truly loves God.
Sometimes we need a hard reset; a back-to-the-basics approach to our relationship with Him.
We need to set aside the distractions, open His word, and invite - and re-invite - Him into our hearts. The more we get to know God, the more our relationship with Him deepens. The more our relationship with God deepens, the more we love Him. And the more we love Him, the more naturally and effectively we serve Him.
What are the strongest internal forces at play in your life? What are the periphery masters you are serving? Comfort? Convenience? Approval of others? Put differently, what is standing in your way of a full heart, mind, and body devotion to the Lord?
My prayer for you is found in Ephesians 3:19: That you would “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
~ Jared Grenfell and his wife Grace have have been active members of the LIFE Fellowship community for several years. Jared has served in various roles on the LIFE Worship team including Music Director.