June 13, 2010 - My Way or the High Way

Deut. 6: 4-9 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. ⁵You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. ⁶Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. ⁷Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. ⁸Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, ⁹and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

If I had it my way, there are people in this world that I’d never have to have contact with. Underwriters for loans are at the top of my list right now.  Hate groups promoting their cause by distorting God’s Word, patriotism, or freedom of speech and spinning them to promote their hateful intentions.

I mean, these kind of people are like woodpeckers in Noah’s ark! We’re all just trying to afloat, and they’re poking holes in the boat!

Yet my way has no answers to the incredible complexity of problems that even brilliant leaders and dedicated people cannot seem to resolve.

So, let’s look to the high way of God’s ancient words that have withheld the test of time, of underwriters, and even of hate groups.

Deuteronomy 6 offers the holiest of all the holy words of Scripture many people, including Jews. These words are called the Shema.  “Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.” The way that we express this love for God, according to this text, is by doing what God says. In fact, Deuteronomy 6:4 would have been the first passage Jesus memorized as a little boy.

The children’s bulletins reflect today’s worship topic. The older kids can read the word SHEMA, and the younger kids are learning about loving the Lord your God. And that’s a lot easier said than done. Many times it is hard to have our actions be congruent with our good intentions to love God.

When the Shema says to love God with all your soul, the rabbis understood this to mean that you should be willing to die rather than betray God.  Most people in the ancient world served regional gods, so if they moved to a new place, they just started to worship the god of that place.  Jewish martyrs would live and die by a higher way, they would recite the words of the Shema as they were being executed.

Wisdom says, "God ought to be the first word you utter as a child and the last breath you exhale before you die." Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 

Author, Peggy Noonan makes a strong point, “Finding God is not hard, because he wants to be found. But keeping God can be hard. Finding God and keeping God is the difference between falling in love and staying in love.” (John Paul the Great (Penguin, 2006), p. 82-85)

Somebody approached Jesus one day and said, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God [recognize these words?] with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as your self. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments."

In the physical realm there are two opposing forces called "centrifugal" and "centripetal." Centrifugal force tends to pull away from a center of rotation, while centripetal force pulls toward the center.

A stone whirled about on the end of a string exerts centrifugal force on the string, while the string exerts centripetal force on the stone. Take away one and the other immediately disappears.

Love of God keeps us connected to the center, while love of neighbor connects us to the needs of others.

Love for people does not mean that I always say what other people want me to say, or that I try to make people feel good. Jesus' love for people is an unconditional regard for others. It's the kind of love that prompts me to try to help someone else become the person God intends him or her to be.

Jesus says this is wisdom: From the moment you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night, love the Lord. We’re called to follow him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  People count. Don't build your life around climbing ladders and collecting trophies. Life is about loving people.

And this all is expressed through our generosity: An international Gallup poll shows that people of all the major world religions who regularly attend religious services (attenders) have higher rates of generosity than other persons who do not regularly attend services (non-attenders).

When asked if they had recently donated money to help those in need, 34 percent of attenders answered yes, while 26 percent of non-attenders answered yes. When asked if they had recently volunteered to help those in need, 26 percent of attenders answered yes, while 18 percent of non-attenders answered yes.  (Buster G. Smith and Rodney Stark, "Religious Attendance Relates to Generosity Worldwide," Gallup.com)

Suppose you have an important package to send to someone who needs it. You take it to an overnight delivery service. What would you think if, instead of delivering the package, the driver took it home? Then, when you confront him, he says, "If you didn't want me to keep it, why'd you give it to me in the first place?"

You'd say, "The package doesn't belong to you. Your job is to deliver it to the person who needs it." Just because God puts his talent and abilities into our hands, and we earn money it doesn't mean he intends for us to keep it. (Randy Alcorn, "God's Money Managers: Letting go of what isn't mine,") 

While working as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, Lee Strobel was assigned to report on the struggles of an impoverished, inner-city family during the weeks leading up to Christmas. A devout atheist at the time, Strobel was mildly surprised by the family's attitude in spite of their circumstances:

The Delgados—60-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters, Lydia and Jenny— were now living in a tiny, two-room apartment on the West Side. As I walked in, I couldn't believe how empty it was. There was no furniture, no rugs, nothing on the walls—only a small kitchen table and one handful of rice. That's it. They were virtually devoid of possessions.

In fact, 11-year-old Lydia and 13-year-old Jenny owned only one short-sleeved dress each, plus one thin, gray sweater between them. When they walked the half-mile to school through the biting cold, Lydia would wear the sweater for part of the distance and then hand it to her shivering sister, who would wear it the rest of the way.

But despite their poverty and the painful arthritis that kept Perfecta from working, she still talked confidently about her faith in Jesus. She was convinced he had not abandoned them. I never sensed despair or self-pity in her home; instead, there was a gentle feeling of hope and peace.

Strobel completed his article, then moved on to more high-profile assignments. But when Christmas Eve arrived, he found his thoughts drifting back to the Delgados and their unflinching belief in God's providence. In his words: "I continued to wrestle with the irony of the situation. Here was a family that had nothing but faith, and yet seemed happy, while I had everything I needed materially, but lacked faith—and inside I felt as empty and barren as their apartment."

In the middle of a slow news day, Strobel decided to pay a visit to the Delgados. When he arrived, he was amazed at what he saw. Readers of his article had responded to the family's need in overwhelming fashion, filling the small apartment with donations. Once inside, Strobel encountered new furniture, appliances, and rugs; a large Christmas tree and stacks of wrapped presents; bags of food; and a large selection of warm winter clothing. Readers had even donated a generous amount of cash.

But it wasn't the gifts that shocked Lee Strobel, an atheist in the middle of Christmas generosity. It was the family's response to those gifts. In his words:

I was even more astonished to see that Perfecta and her granddaughters were getting ready to give away much of their newfound wealth. When I asked Perfecta why, she replied: "Our neighbors are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do."

That blew me away! If I had been in their position at that time in my life, I would have been hoarding everything. I asked Perfecta what she thought about the generosity of the people who had sent all of these goodies, and again her response amazed me. "This is wonderful; this is very good," she said, gesturing toward the largess. "We did nothing to deserve this—it's a gift from God. But," she added, "It is not his greatest gift. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. That is Jesus."

To her, this child in the manger was the undeserved gift that meant everything—more than material possessions, more than comfort, more than security. And at that moment, something inside of me wanted desperately to know this Jesus—because, in a sense, I saw him in Perfecta and her granddaughters.

They had peace despite poverty, while I had anxiety despite plenty; they knew the joy of generosity, while I only knew the loneliness of ambition; they looked heavenward for hope, while I only looked out for myself; they experienced the wonder of the spiritual, while I was shackled to the shallowness of the material—and something made me long for what they had.

Or, more accurately, for the One they knew and loved.

Lee Strobel, The Case for Christmas (Zondervan, 2005)

Perhaps loving God and loving others is a higher way helps more than just those in need.

(Thanks and recognition to John Ortberg for his work entitled The Way of Wisdom)