For the Glory of God | Everything
"There are far, far better things ahead
than any we leave behind."
-CS Lewis
The glory of man is that God has chosen us as vessels of His spirit, with which we can be filled and are only fulfilled by Him. The tragedy of man is that we try to fill ourselves with anything and everything but God- work, money, sex, admiration- all of which have their place but all of which make terrible gods.
We as individuals intrinsically praise and elevate, we have no choice but to worship. However, we have the choice of who and what we will worship, and are made free to bear the consequences of those choices.
Chesterton once wrote in his book Orthodoxy that "When you choose anything, you reject everything else." By choosing to do absolutely anything, we absolutely refuse to do everything else we could potentially do with the same resources, time, and energy available to finite being such as ourselves. Whether in word or deed, consciously or subconsciously, with every breath we choose to worship Something. What will that be? Is that god enough to fill you? Or are you just "playing house" with your life? Who is your god, and are you willing to give everything for it? Because that's what worship is.
Worship is choosing One Thing, and giving up everything else.
Chesterton once wrote in his book Orthodoxy that "When you choose anything, you reject everything else." By choosing to do absolutely anything, we absolutely refuse to do everything else we could potentially do with the same resources, time, and energy available to finite being such as ourselves. Whether in word or deed, consciously or subconsciously, with every breath we choose to worship Something. What will that be? Is that god enough to fill you? Or are you just "playing house" with your life? Who is your god, and are you willing to give everything for it? Because that's what worship is.
Worship is choosing One Thing, and giving up everything else.
Following Jesus costs absolutely nothing and yet requires everything you have. He does not respect status, whether high or low, whether great or small. All stand on level ground in the presence of God.
When Jesus calls a few poor fishermen to be his disciples in Luke 5, the text says that they "left everything and followed him." Later in that same chapter, Jesus calls out to a wealthy tax collector to come with him, and the man "left everything and followed him."
Everything? Even...(fill in the blank)? To this, Jesus answers "Yes. Everything."
In the 9th chapter of the gospel of Luke, Jesus says this to one of his followers who is on the fence about whether or not Jesus is worth following.
"No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:60 ESV)
I'm the type of person who likes to look back. I'm also the type of person who is hesitant to plow straight ahead. I like to look at the angles, to examine the options, to figure out the best thing to do socially and financially. But if I'm honest, social standing and financial security are pretty fickle gods to worship. The same goes for friendship, safety, and success.
But I believe in my soul that God is worth more than everything I could ever offer.
The Question
What are you willing to give up for more than everything?
No comments:
Post a Comment