“The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things.”
— A.W. Tozer
Stuck?
This past Christmas, Santa brought our family an incredible gift that we have enjoyed almost every single day since Christmas day.
I don’t know about you, but a lot of times when Christmas rolls around, or a birthday, or another gift-giving holiday, I get a lot of gifts that I love, and I’m even grateful for, but 3 months later I couldn’t tell you what I got! Much less, if that gift was something I would use every day.
So in my book, this particular gift that Santa brought our family at Christmas was especially good!
It’s an iRobot vacuum cleaner!
We love this thing. What a great invention.
The reason we love it SO MUCH is because we have a Golden Retriever named Belle, yes… after the princess from Beauty and the Beast, and she sheds. A LOT!
Before our iRobot vacuum… which, by the way, we named, “Sally,” I would have to vacuum every week, sometimes multiple times per week, just to keep all the dog hair up off the floors! But now, thanks to Sally, I never do that!
Why? Because every day at 9AM she vacuums our house! She picks up all the dog hair! And it’s awesome!
Except for one thing… not every day, but fairly often I’ll get a notification on my phone that “Sally is stuck!”
The first day I got this notification, I almost died laughing because it said “Sally is stuck near the edge of a cliff!”
We don’t have any “cliffs” in our house. We don’t live on the Grand Canyon!
What happens 2-3 times a week is that Sally gets stuck. And she almost always gets stuck in the same places. Most of the time, she gets stuck right up under the edge of our couch. I don’t know why. You would think she would learn by now not to get stuck there. But nevertheless, whenever Sally is stuck, she’s stuck in that same place!
How do we get unstuck?
I think that’s what happens to us too. When it comes to loving God and loving each other, we often get stuck in the same places.
God says… Love each other.
And we say… Yes, but do you know what he did? Did you hear what she said?
God says… Love me above everything else.
And we say… Yes, but it’s Prime day on Amazon and I really want that.
God says… Turn away from sin in your life.
And we say… If you’ll forgive me one more time, I promise I’ll never do this again.
God says… You can’t serve two masters.
And we say… Yes Lord, but can you help me get that promotion, buy that new car, and make more money?
When it comes to loving God and loving each other, I think more often than not we get stuck in the same places.
So here’s the question: How do we get unstuck?
Lent
Did you know we’re actually in the season of Lent?
Lent, according to the Christian Calendar, began on February 26 and it ends on April 9, the Thursday before Easter.
If you’re not familiar with Lent, it’s a tradition within some churches that provides a time to prepare your heart and mind for Easter. It’s a time to reflect, repent, and to pray. And what you’ll find is that many Christians, as a part of Lent, will give up something during this season as a practice of self-denial.
And the reason this is important, whether you do this during Lent or during any time of the year, is because we are constantly getting ourselves STUCK in the same places.
The 10th Commandment
I think it’s why God gave Moses the 10th Commandment.
Do you remember the 10th Commandment? My guess is that you probably remember the first 2! 1: You shall have no other gods before me. 2: You shall make no idols.
But then we get to the 10th Commandment and here’s what God told Moses to write down for the people of God:
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Exodus 20.17
Out of all the things God told Moses to write down as a binding law for the people of God, why in the world did, “You shall not covet…” make the list?
I think it’s because God knew that you can’t simultaneously love God and love the things of this world.
What does it mean to covet?
To covet means more than just wanting what the person next to us has. That’s how we’ve defined it for a long time. But it’s more than that.
To covet carries the idea of WANT + ACQUISITION. It’s DESIRE + TAKING what you want. And when you think about it in those terms, you quickly realize that this is our problem. Because we live in an Amazon, streaming, buy it now, instant access kind of world. And if we have a want, if we have a desire, it is not hard for us acquire what we want, take what we want, with little or no thought about the needs of others.
We see it right now in our world.
No More Toilet Paper!
How many of you have seen a picture like this on your social media feed?
Why in the world is everyone buying and stockpiling all the toilet paper right now? I don’t know, but I do know this… this is what happens when WANT + ACQUISITION takes over and people act out of self-interest instead of regard for others.
Stockpiling Hand Sanitizer!
Or how about this, how many of you saw this story…
2 men in Tennessee are under investigation for stockpiling over 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes, then trying to sell them at a steep markup on Amazon. One of the brothers took a 1,300 mile road trip buying thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and wipes and the other brother stayed home waiting for shipments to arrive at their house.
Why? Why did they do that? Because this is what DESIRE + TAKING looks like. It’s what happens when people act out of self-interest instead of regard for others.
Living in the Land of God’s Abundance
And this is precisely what happened in the Garden of Eden. If you go back to the beginning, you’ll find the temptation of the serpent was WANT + ACQUISITION. It was DESIRE + TAKING.
So Adam and Eve find themselves where they weren’t supposed to be, near the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They were supposed to be near God. They were supposed to be near the work God gave them to do. They were supposed to be near His plan and purpose for thier life. But like so many of us, their first problem was PROXIMITY.
They allowed themselves to get to close to where they knew they were not supposed to be. And then, the serpent whispers his lie into their ears. And they are deceived. Here they are, living in the land of God’s Abundance, living in the Garden of Eden where every good thing God has created is theirs. And yet, they still want MORE.
Sound familiar? We do the same. We live in a land of abundance, yet we still want for more and often we take what we want with no regard for others/neighbor.
Why? We, too, have been deceived. The snake in the garden still hisses and whispers in our ear, “Go ahead and take what you want!”
God’s Place in your Heart
So John reminds the church of this fundamental truth,
Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts. – 1 John 5.21
Why? Because your enemy will continue to whisper in your ear… Take what you want! You deserve to have it! You need it! You have the money to get it. Just buy it. Just take it. You need more. It’s your right to have it.
We get in the habit in every area of our lives to saying YES to things, many of them good things, but they fill up our lives. Sometimes we say yes to things that fill up our TIME. Sometimes we say yes to material things that fill up our SPACE.
Whenever you say YES to one thing you automatically say NO to something else. It’s true with our time. It’s true with our money.
So what happens when we continually say YES to the things of this world? We automatically say NO to God.
So John says,
Keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.
Saying No, Saying Yes
So here’s the question I want you to wrestle with today and this week…
What do you need to say NO to so that you can say YES to God?
How can we say NO to the things of this world so we can say YES to dependence on God?
The answer to that question looks different this week than it did last week. Last week, maybe it meant we say no to Amazon for 30 days. Maybe we take a week off of TV. Or maybe we turn off the news for a few days. That may not be realistic this week.
But this week, maybe it means we say no to all non-essential purchases. Maybe it means we say no to continuous screen time in our homes. Maybe it means we say no to sleeping in every day and self-indulgence.
But it’s not just about saying no to ourselves. It’s about saying YES to God.
So maybe it means saying YES to a new routine of spending time with God every morning. Maybe it means saying YES to connecting with your family in meaningful ways. Maybe it means saying YES to calling and checking in on people in your neighborhood, in our church, and in other places who need to hear from you. Maybe it means saying YES to financially helping someone who you know is hurting right now because of this current crisis.
Remember, John’s goal is for us to love God and love each other in such a radical and tangible way that it ignites our purpose, further’s our mission, strengthens our testimony, and helps us grow as disciples of Jesus Christ!
And we cannot love the things of this world and love God. We cannot allow the things of this world to take the place of God in our hearts!
Job Well Done
When Sally, our robot vacuum, completes a cleaning cycle without getting stuck I get a notification on my phone that says, “ Sally just completed a job successfully!”
I think the same could be true of us!
May we continue to love God and love each other well. And may we one day hear Jesus say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Little children, love each other.
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