ALL IN

“She put in everything—all she had to live on.” Mark 12:44 

Last Friday our family celebrated a local high school senior at her graduation party.  Since our friend is headed to my alma mater, Auburn University, we all proudly donned burnt orange and navy blue.  Several others at the party also wore the same colors, but I knew their fashion choices were out love for the senior—not loyalty to the school.  In other words, they weren’t ALL IN.  

Those two words became Auburn’s slogan for the 2010 championship football season and have stuck around as one of the Tigers’ mottos.  The phrase is displayed with pride on t-shirts, billboards, and brochures as a short and simple declaration of complete commitment and unwavering allegiance to the school and all of its endeavors. 

Auburn fan or not, ALL IN is a fun motto for football but a much more fantastic motto for faith.  It is a declaration of complete commitment and unwavering allegiance, not to a program or institution but to a person—Jesus Christ.  As Christians who have been graciously given “new life into a living hope,” ALL IN is what we’re supposed to be, but what we often struggle being.  However short and simple the words are to say, they are tough to live.  God knows this, so instead of only giving explanations, He gave us examples.  Two ladies whose stories aren’t far apart in the book of Mark show us what ALL IN looks like—or better yet, what ALL IN sounds like—clanging coins and cracking stone.

The widow at the temple didn’t need a t-shirt to declare her loyalty—or a megaphone.
Two copper coins ringing in the coffer were louder than any cheer could ever be.  

“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents”(Mk 12:41-42).  Most never heard the quiet clinks, but to Jesus they were the deafening roar of total trust.  ^“Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on’”(Mk 12:43-44).  ALL IN.  Literally.  We’re not given the prologue or epilogue of this story, but we can be sure that such devoted dependence and sacrificial obedience move the God of heaven to supply what is needed here and to store up treasures there.  The poor widow may have left with empty hands, but her heart was full of trust that the One who never let her down would never let her lack.  ALL IN.

 

Mary felt the same.  

More than perfume flowed through the broken alabaster box as she anointed Jesus that evening in Bethany. Absolute devotion, bursting passion, and enormous gratitude poured onto His head and feet.  Though the contents were her financial and social security, she cracked the stone and held nothing back.  ALL IN.  Some scoffed at what they thought was waste, but Jesus’ rebuke was severe.  “Don’t give her a hard time.  Her attitude and actions are beautiful, and her story will be shared from now through eternity”(Mk 14:6-9). The scent of her sacrifice lingered on His body even at His burial. ALL IN.

For us, ALL IN might sound different than clanging coins or cracking stone, but the attitude is always the same. Devotion. Obedience. Trust. Love. Sacrifice. Praise. Gratitude. And even extravagance.  We can never love God too much, trust God too much, or worship God too much.  His grace and mercy call us to complete commitment and unwavering allegiance.  Every moment we must choose, and we should never hesitate.

How can we be less than ALL IN for the One who went all out for us?