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.

Finish What You Started

“He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.”  Philippians 1:6

Many years ago, on the west side of the road that runs from my parents’ home to town, someone began to build a house.  And many years later, the house still was not complete.  I know because with several school bus drivers and then with my older brother and sister and then behind the wheel myself, I traveled by the site twice a day for over a decade and stared as the long-exposed foundation was finally lined with a few framed walls which slowly morphed into a bricked-over but empty shell.  And then it sat.  Week after week.  Month after month.  Year after year.  A project someone started but failed to finish.

The half-built house reminded me of a story…“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish’”(Luke 14:28-30). Through the years, this famous parable of Jesus has been pondered by several considering discipleship, but today it’s being considered by one pondering devotions.

Early every morning and late every night when I log on and off my laptop, one icon on the screen seems bigger and more beckoning than the rest—the folder labeled “Mark Devotions.”  It was created in January and for the next five months was filled with reflections on the most compact and action-packed of the four gospels, but then came my daughter’s graduation and summer vacation and my words begin to wane.  Plans to resume writing when school started back have been halted by an unforeseen overload of lesson plans, an extra class, curriculum creation, and a steady stream of swim meets.  While all are legitimate reasons for the delay, I can’t keep putting off until tomorrow what really should be done today.

I need the discipline of pondering God’s Word in my heart and putting my words on a page, and I desire the delight of those very same things.  My mind misses the continual contemplation of a verse, a phrase, or a promise, and my spirit longs for the deep pleasure of how Scripture can be expounded and exalted by the simple combination of nouns, verbs, and a few appropriate adjectives.  And so, after that long and unsolicited explanation, I will begin to finish what I’ve begun.

Perhaps it’s a good time for all of us to think about those projects we like to say are “in process.”  Few can truthfully tout we have none which are unfinished.  For some, what lies undone is physical—a half-organized shed or a partially completed scrapbook.  For others, it’s relational—calls not made, notes not written, or an apology never offered.  In one way or another (and usually both and many), we all have stopped some stuff we need to start back up.  The break isn’t always bad, and time away can bring clarity and renewed energy, but there comes a moment (which for me is today) when we must pick up the hammer, pick up the phone, or pick up the pen, and begin again.  

The One who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it.

Let’s not stop until we finish what we’ve started for Him, in Him, and through Him.

By the way, the house by the highway was finally finished just a few years ago.  It’s rarely too late to resume!

The Same In The Change

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  Hebrews 13:8

In many ways much happened since I last put pen to paper.  Summer flew by in a beautiful blur of sunny days spent in several places—a few even at home.  I caught up with friends and spent time with family.  I tackled at least one item on my list of long-awaiting projects and started preparing for a new year at school.  My oldest daughter moved away to college.  Her bedroom now lies empty and quiet and her chair at the table is inhabited by a large stuffed penguin wearing her favorite shirt.  My other two offspring somehow morphed from freshman and sophomore into sophomore and junior, and while the start of a new sports season and school semester has thrust us all into a renewed flurry of scheduled activities and demanding assignments, I am more keen than ever to the reality that these precious days are numbered and should be fully cherished.  I know I live in a season of life where times are quickly changing, and sometimes I feel quite out of control.

Actually I am, and honestly that’s okay because God is not.  The One who does not change is still supremely sovereign.  There is never a moment when He is flustered, frenzied, or frantic.  There is never a day when He is rushed or feels regret.  He never wrings His hands wondering how events will unfold, and He never worries that He will forget something urgent or important.  God is absolutely and infinitely in complete control, and none of our glowing successes or glaring failures will alter His eternal purpose or endless power.  

Whether our days seem different with each sunrise or our weeks could be swapped with barely a wrinkle, the enormous fact that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb 13:8) calms all hearts and soothes all souls.  It also brings great delight, for such truth means that God’s still good for every promise He’s ever made and still true to ever word He’s ever spoken.

One of those powerful promises crossed my path through today’s Sunday School lesson, and it was just what this mama whose heart is now in two places needed to hear.  Jude, the half-brother of Jesus who knew Him longer and better than almost all others on earth, ended his short but super epistle with this inspiring doxology:  “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to this only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!  Amen”(Jude 1:24). 

All God’s children are kept in God’s love by God’s grace, and though we may fall down, we will never fall off.   He is the One who has caught us and He is the One who will keep us—safe in His hand and close to His heart.  He will do this during all our days on earth and throughout our eternity in heaven where He will proudly show us off as trophies of His grace, “without fault” totally because of His righteousness and “with great joy” entirely because of His mercy. The One who is able to do this and who is doing this right now as I write and right now as you read is utterly deserving of our deepest praise and endless worship.  He is our God.  He is our Savior.  He is our Jesus who was “before all ages” and who will ever be beyond our wildest imagination or greatest expectation. 

Great is His faithfulness through the change and in the same—now and forevermore!! 

Amen and Amen.