Thursday, October 8, 2009

Best of both worlds

You're probably wondering why the Hannah Montana logo is gracing this post. You are right to do so. But there is a point to it. Like most dads of little girls in America, I'm familiar with Hannah Montana. Lily & Emma love the show; unfortunately, Owen is liking it too. But that's another post for another day. As anyone who has watched the show knows, it starts with the now famous theme song, "Best of Both Worlds." The other day, while trying desperately to get this song unstuck from my brain, I realized that this phrase perfectly encapsulates how most of us view our Christian walk. It's not that we aren't committed to following Jesus-on the contrary, we try to be faithful to serve Him, to obey Him, to do all that He's called us to do. The problem is that we don't just love Jesus-we still love the world too. And so we're trying to have the best of both worlds, aren't we? We want to be faithful to serve Jesus, but still not deny ourselves too much. We dress it up in words like "relevance" and "understanding", but in my life I've discovered that it's a love for the world and the things in it. This absolutely flies in the face of what Jesus said, doesn't it? I John 2:15 says, " Do not love the world or the things in the world." Pretty plain, isn't it? Then John goes on to make this amazing statement; "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Do we ever pause to consider the implications of this statement? If we have a deep seated love for the world-the set of rules & values by which the world governs itself-if I love that in the same way I love Jesus, then I don't really love Jesus. Consider it this way; I can say all day long that I love my wife. But if I tell you I love her while keeping a girlfriend on the side, you have reason to doubt whether or not I truly love her. Why? Love for my wife is an exclusive love; if I love her, I can't love another. In the very same way, Jesus demands an exclusive love from us. And here's something we don't often consider-Jesus deserves an exclusive love from us. How sad that we allow our love for the temporal to cloud our love for the eternal. We, as Max Lucado said, allow that which will rot to rule that which will last forever. There are serious implications to trying to have 'the best of both worlds.' My life should be given over to an exclusive, exhaustive love for my Savior.

Father, thank you for Your patience when I don't love You as I should. You are worthy of so much more than I offer you, yet You still love me. I acknowledge that this isn't because of anything good within in, but only because of the blood of Jesus Christ that has atoned for my sins, and purchased my adoption into Your family. Help me to love You above all else; to love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. You demand such love from me; You deserve such love for me. Because You love me, help me Love you. Amen.

2 comments:

  1. hey randy! I just wanted to tell you I am very glad that you decided to start a blog! I was thinking just the other day I wish Randy still sent me the email bloggity things he used to write, well NOW I can just read them on here..Way to go:)

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