More and Most

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30

I spent last weekend searching for words to describe what it means to love God fully, and I found the answer during Sunday’s offertory.

He was sitting on the end of the second pew.  Standing, actually, as we often do after the giving plate has passed.  The praise band was leading the congregation in a modern version of the old hymn, “Come Ye Sinners,” and I was lost in my own little world of tunes and truth when my husband nudged my arm and gently whispered, “Look at Bobby.”   

A quick glance would have turned to a gawking stare if my mother hadn’t taught me better.  I’ve been blessed to see many beautiful sights in my life—snow-capped mountains, roaring waterfalls, golden beaches, blazing deserts, newborn babies, airport reunions, and little girls on Christmas morning for starters, but few can compare to the absolute delight that consumed the man to my left.  

Bobby hasn’t been in our congregation for long, and I don’t yet know him well, but I do know that he never forgets a name and that he notices minute details.  His brilliant brain functions a bit differently than most, and many would describe him as challenged, but on Sunday the only word that could define him would be “whole.”  Bobby was loving God with his whole heart, his whole soul, his whole mind, and his whole strength. He could barely contain his joy at belonging to Jesus.  As we sang the words, “I will arise and go to Jesus; He will embrace me as His own, and in the arms of my Savior there is life forevermore,” his rapture was so great and his bliss at such astounding reality so intense that he was giddy with delight.  He was singing and smiling and beaming so big that he was almost giggling in euphoria at the splendor of such a Savior.

I fought back the tears, but they fell anyway.  Oh, to love the Lord like that!  To have a heart so enthralled with the beauty of God’s holiness and the magnificence of His grace that a few simple lyrics could evoke such love.  

The incredible truth of God’s sovereignty and mercy and passion and compassion and patience and sacrifice and power should continually translate into a ready response that consumes all that we are and ever will be. He should be the focus and the priority of our thoughts, our desires, our choices, our words, our actions, our attitudes, our purpose, our plans, and our promises.   “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength’”(Mk 12:30). Head to toe, up and down and all the way through, our entire being should be completely His—every moment of every day of all of all our lives.

Our God is worthy of nothing less, so we should love Him more and more.

And we should love Him most.

Listen and Love

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’” Mark 12:30

The recent devastation from floods and fires prompted me to ask my students what three things they would grab if they only had two minutes to get out of their homes.  Their replies were telling answers to life’s biggest question—“What matters most?”

A couple of millennia ago a curious lawyer inquired the same of a guy he could tell was pretty smart.  Jesus was at the temple tackling tough topics like taxes, marriage, and the resurrection as he talked with the Pharisees.  “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.  Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important one?’”(Mk 12:28).  In other words, “What matters most?”

This man’s entire life and livelihood revolved around the “thou shalts” and the “thou shalt nots,” and the Jews had plenty of both because on top of all the divine mandates laid down by the Lord, they had added layer upon layer of man-made laws and traditions intended to prevent and protect.  The result was a lengthy list of “dos and don’ts” with each command seeming to demand priority and different rabbis touting the prominence of one over another.

And so the man asked, and so Jesus answered.  “The most important one is this:  ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength’”(Mk 12:30).  Of all the things we do in life, the thing we should do most, the thing we should do best, the thing we should do first, is love God—completely and absolutely with all that we are. 

Such devotion and adoration is not an emotion we conjure up on our own but is a response to God’s preceding passion for us.  “We love him because He first loved us”(I Jn 4:19).  He groaned in the garden, sacrificed on the mountain, and triumphed in the graveyard.  His action prompts our reaction, and our own affection is but an echo of His unfailing and everlasting love.

The key to loving God is to listen—to open our ears to the greatness and grace of the One—the only One—who whispers His power through creation and shouts His passion from the cross.  “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”  He utters His desire for us through every word of His Word and proclaims His affections for us through the workings of His Spirit.  Many well-polished idols loudly declare their ability to fulfill the desires of our hearts—significance, position, security, joy, and contentment, but only by tuning out what is false and listening to the One who is true will we truly love and truly live.

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Listen. Love. And let Him be your one and only.