Some things are just meant to
go together: red beans and rice, peas and carrots, chocolate and peanut butter,
toast and jam. Yes, I do realize that all my examples have to do with food, but
come now, isn’t food what came to your mind too? It just seems like some things
were not quite right until they found their true expression in connection with
their true partner. Rice by itself? Bland. Rice with beans? Now you have a New
Orleans staple. Carrots on their own? What am I, a rabbit? Peas and carrots?
Now you are talking. Dry toast? Yuck. Who wants dry, almost burned bread? Toast
and jam. Well, that is breakfast.
Some things are just meant to
go together. I wonder how many such things are just waiting to be discovered,
waiting to come to full expression in the wonderful synergy that is found in
the combination of two rather than the aloneness of being one. How many things
do we experience in singular fashion that could be better if they were simply
combined? I can’t even hazard a guess, but on a regular basis I do try mixing
things on my plate to find out. It drives Rachel crazy. I used to get comments
about behaving in an embarrassing way. Now I just get rolled eyes from Rachel
and the kids, eyes that say, “He’s mixing again.” Really, I want to know what
goes together. I do know of at least one. Jesus gives us a heads up about in in
Matthew 25.31-46, and it doesn’t have anything to do with food. I know. It is
shocking that things other than food can go together, but they do, so don’t
look for anything about food in the words that follow.
According to Jesus, there are
two great items, important enough on their own, that actually are meant to go
together. Are your ready? Jesus said that loving him and loving others actually
are meant to go together. That’s huge. Here’s why this is such a big deal. Most
of us spend our entire lives keeping them apart. We draw sharp lines on our
spiritual plates in order to ensure that loving God and loving others don’t
mix. Some of us even invest in some heavy-duty divided dinnerware to ensure
that the juices of the two have no chance of mixing. These two spiritual dishes
are wonderful enough on their own. No one in their right mind would ever mix
them. To mix them would corrupt the integrity of both. Here’s what happens when
we keep them apart. We start to favor one dish over the other.
For me, I tend to favor the
loving God dish. I simply find it a bit more savory. God is so wonderful and
beautiful. He is glorious and mighty. The aroma of loving him is almost too
difficult to resist. On the other hand, loving people is a finicky dish.
Sometimes it smells great and is appealing to the eye. Other times, well. .
.let’s just say that loving others is repulsive and caustic. Because I am not
sure how the loving others is going to turn out, I will often leave that dish
untouched on my plate. I justify leaving this dish untouched due to potential
stomach upset.
Jesus doesn’t look and say,
“You need be sure and eat that dish, Blake.” I think he knows it isn’t always
the most savory of dishes. He should know. He loved some fairly unsavory
characters. Rather, Jesus reaches down, fork in hand, and mixes the two
together into a single mixed up mess so that to love God is to love others and
to love others is to love him. With a wink and a grin he quips, “Eat up.” At
first I am not sure I really want to touch it. Jesus has just mixed things up
on my spiritual plate and I am not sure I am going to like it. We aren’t
talking about mixing sweet and savory here. We are talking about sweet and rip your
guts out.
When I finally venture a
bite, I find that it really does work. It works in a gritty, earthy kind of
way. Suddenly, loving God and people take on new and wonderful meanings. Mixing
the two means that loving God is no longer “out there.” Loving God isn’t about
emotion, nor is it something I wonder about. Mixing the two puts a face on God.
Mixing the two brings loving God to earth in a way that is real and tangible.
Likewise, mixing the two brings new meaning to loving others. Mixing the two softens
the caustic nature of the dish, purifying the aroma so that in others I see
beauty amidst ashes and grace amidst pain. I find that one bite leads to
another. Soon I discover that there actually is wisdom in mixing the two for
they were meant to go together.
A fellow traveler,
Blake
Shipp
Spiritual Formation Pastor
What
is my next step?
I
encourage you to consider the following as a way of handing off faith to your
family. . .
Talk about loving freely:
This week, as you put your children to bed, take some extra time to evaluate
their day. Ask them about what made them glad, what made them sad, and what
made them mad. As they talk about each of these experiences, chances are that
they will link back to specific persons and their relationship with those
persons. When these persons are mentioned, talk about why people might have
acted as they did, and ask your child how they might show love to this person.
Conclude by praying for the person and your child, that God would use them to
show love. When you talk the next evening, ask how things went and repeat the
process. Over time you and your child will begin to partner with God in showing
love in all situations in both prayer and action.
I
encourage you to consider the following as a way of nurturing your own faith. .
.
Memorize 1 John 4.19-21: We
can learn to live as God has called us to live when we take the truth about
life into the depths of our being and make it a part of who we are. One easy
way to do this is through Scripture memory. In memorizing Scripture we make it
a part of who we are so that it can shape and guide us. This week, seek to
memorize 1 John 4.19-21, a Scripture passage that speaks about the very essence
of the good life. You might memorize this passage by writing it down on an index
card and carrying it with you through the day so that you can reference it. At
a minimum, seek to review your card when you get up in the morning, at lunch,
and right before you go to bed. As the text finds its place in your mind,
review it and meditate upon it throughout your day. Allow God to speak to you
through this verse. You might consider journaling what God says to you through
this verse and sharing these thoughts with your spouse or your community group.
Your reference to scripture on this message is a key passage on how to love people in this world without getting burned out. It took me a very long time to realize what true love is and how it is expressed in a true Godly way. It must have a power that will, first of all, break through the defenses of an individual and capture their attention in a downright miraculous way or as to catch them completely off guard with a pleasantness they have never experienced before and secondly to make a lasting impression that will fill their heart with new life every time they revisit that experience in their mind. I believe this is the true act of “repentance” or in its definition the changing of ones mind.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of the experience that the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11 must have of felt as they were about to stone her for her sin. Besides the lesson that Jesus was teaching the Pharisees about not judging others and enacting punishment for their sins, which is to be left to God alone, I think an equally and almost greater lesson was being learned by the woman. This lesson for which she learned is the downright miraculous breaking into the darkness of her mind and ultimately filling her heart with the precious and loving heavenly light of the Almighty Creator God. In that moment with not but a few words being spoken by the Master, this woman’s life up to that point would never ever be the same. What she experienced was not what she had always expected and been taught to know in this horrible existence she lived. In verse 10 and 11 of John 8 Jesus addresses her………..
John 8:10-11 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”
What empowered her to change her mind and not do as she always did anymore? Jesus saying, “I do not condemn you” There lies the power of what 1 John 4 is talking about in verse 10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Jesus has to first love us to empower us to love. As in the woman’s case and for many others in this world it is condemnation that lies at the core of all peoples heart and prevents them from experiencing love and expressing love. People have a sense of impending judgment that disqualifies them of any hopes of ever being loved by a Holy God. But it is in this very brief moment in time where Jesus completely turns the table on all humanity and shows that the heart of God is that ALL people are loved deeply by Him and that He desires that no one should ever sense otherwise. There come His Saints in the need to break through as Jesus did and extend that same experience of love they had with the Father.
This is the Gospel, this GOOD NEWS! You only have to share what you have already been given in the first place. 1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And again in this same chapter John says, “19We love, because He first loved us.”
It is His love that is the downright miraculous power that leaves the lasting impression!