If I Only Had A…
If I Only Had A…
(DEUTERONOMY 6:5)
Dorothy and her friends, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion, were all incomplete. In fact the whole story of Oz can be viewed as a search for the significant. Knowledge, love, courage, and a place to belong are the principal desires of us all. Without them we feel insignificant, marginalized, and homeless. Self image and quality of life are essentially linked to the pursuit, attainment, or loss of these very human needs. One can only imagine to what measure alcoholism, drug abuse, promiscuity, and hate each generation of every age suffers as they try to anesthetize themselves from the pain of their own personal deficit.
Followers of Christ soon discover that instead of pursuing these essentials, that make life worthwhile, they seek first the kingdom and find their life by losing it. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart (the Tin Man's pursuit), soul (your being-finding rest/Dorothy's desire), strength (the Lion's wish) and mind (the Scarecrow's goal) means that you have come to the realization that in Christ all your needs are met.
How is this so? Consider Jesus' requirement for discipleship, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whosoever loses his life for my sake will find it." The key to this passage is an evaluation of what you want. Surely each person who encounters Jesus' criteria for discipleship at first has their own share of personal desires. All that He requires of us is to drop them all and carry His. This is easy only if you desire Him more than anything else.
To "love the Lord your God with all..." begins with self denial and continues the rest of your natural life dying to your own life. The mental picture Jesus was illustrating here is that of a condemned person leaving prison for the site of execution. The prisoner is not going to be doing anything else during that trip. There is nothing additional on his itinerary for that day but to go from imprisonment to death. For a would-be disciple, that is a pretty heavy commitment, beginning each day with the conscious determination of dying to self. But an easy one if that is what you desire. I mean c'mon! Dorothy and her companions were willing to face anything to have their desires met. Even flying monkeys!
The decision to follow Christ entails the spiritual and emotional exchange of all we have to purchase a cross to carry, daily. But the great paradox in this passage reveals that the decision to lose all actually is the means to have all. Our lives are found when we lose them for Christ's sake. Make no mistake, pretenders do not get by God. We only qualify for the benefits of discipleship when we love God more than anything else. But by seeking first the Kingdom, all these things are added to us. This is a bonus.
After all, we already possess the most important relationship, goal, achievement, life pursuit, there is. That being, Christ.
Let me illustrate. Several years ago, some friends and I started an event we called, The Zw-op (pronounced like: co-op) Coffee Shop. Twice a year, friends would gather at someone's house for the purpose of taking turns reading great literature. Soon the works of Bacon, Milne, Edwards, Donne, Lewis, and others were more familiar to us. A greater appreciation and enjoyment grew in our hearts for these wonderfully written treasures that had been lost in the busyness of life. Appropriately, we derived the name from the Greek word zoopoiesis, which means, vivication-a making alive (Greek-I did two years, paroled 1998). This is what Christ does with all of our life.
The temptation we face is still the same, follow the will means that create your own happiness by granting your own wishes and desires. That did not work for Adam and Eve and it will not work for us. Many use for the same excuse as the characters in the story of Oz to reason why they are not active in the Christian life, "if I only had... I would..." is invalid when it comes to the obedience and faithfulness that God requires from each person. Paul's illustration of the church as a human body settled forever the importance of each member to the plan of God. Every believer has a position, mission and destiny scripted out by our Creator. That deficit feeling that is so hard to shake, that inferiority of gifts, that coveting of others confidence and position, has only one remedy. You must die. Daily.
I have done a lot of counseling spanning all types and ages of Christians who have trouble staying focused, feel inadequate for service or simply want more out of life than what they have received. I do what I can to comfort the hurting and assure the fearful. If there is a physical, mental or emotional need, my wife and I respond to the best of our means. But the bottom line that I stress in my counseling is this, "No one knows how you feel more than Jesus. He even knows you better than you know yourself. He knows all the pain and fear, all the problems, all that you have been through. But even if you were privileged to have a personal encounter with Him right now, He would say to you, "If anyone desires to follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me." There are no exceptions. And when you begin to desire Him more than anything else, the vivication takes place. He made you the way that you are. You are complete, you just need to be connected to He who is life. After all, "Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man, that he didn't, didn't already have..."