God's Yardstick - Part I

The Forgotten

Here it is, New Year’s Eve and many of us are taking stock of our lives. In addition, I just celebrated a milestone birthday, so thoughts about where I’m going with my life have come to the foreground. Traditionally, many of us set new goals for the future and make ridiculous New Year’s resolutions. We’ll hear some on the news tonight.

Okay, they’re not all ridiculous, but perhaps futile is a better word. We make the same ones every single year but nothing changes, right? I read that only one out of five people will actually stick with a New Year resolution past a couple months!

Usually, the resolutions people discuss openly revolve around weight loss and dieting. Even Oprah apparently set her number one goal as losing lbs. People say things like, I’m going to get on that treadmill and exercise more. I remember hearing one man shout into the anchor’s microphone, “I’m going to floss everyday!” And I was startled. Is that really someone’s goal for the year? I mean, isn’t there more to life than taking care of our teeth? I have a dear friend who tells me I think too much. But seriously, are we put on this planet merely to avoid gum disease?

I get it though. Basically, these are things that have gone undone, though we all know we should pay better attention to maintaining health. When we were young our parents nagged, cajoled and urged us constantly with reminders to brush and clean off our plate, to wash our hands and say please and thank you. Maybe, in some small way, we revert to that part of our collective conscience when we think about starting a new year. Let’s see, what would my mother say to me? What am I forgetting? Where am I out of whack in my life?

There can be a lot of guilt wrapped up in these resolutions. In other words, I’ve been failing at some important areas of my life. What must I do to make this next year a better one? Sadly, the world’s most cited answers deal with physical appearances. The whole focus is on the externals and totally disregards the inner soul where so much remains untended in our lives. It’s on the inside that we harbor grudges and unforgiveness. The outer body can be trim and tanned while the inner man is tarnished with pain and sorrow.

And getting back to Oprah, a woman who has it all, I did notice on my Comcast home page that she set other goals after slimming down. She hopes to honor herself, reverence herself and then to have increased harmony in her life. Interesting. A woman whose assets are in the billions, exceeding a majority of third world countries, wants to find internal peace. And she's brave enough to admit it.

I think a more important question needs to be asked. What would God say about my life? And if he had one, what would be his yardstick with which to measure?

A Hot Love Affair
When asked about New Year resolutions, I’ve found that Christians often say they want to be more faithful with spending time in the Word of God and prayer. These are the things we’ve neglected or let slide, but we know we should tend to more faithfully to be healthy and fit in spirit. We too, definitely fall into the trap of paying too much attention to the externals of our busy lifestyles and day after day, week after week, we leave the Lord out of our daily affairs.

Then, when things run amuck, we come scurrying back “to find his grace in time of need”. Of course, when we come to him, he is always there just as he promised, but we have lost out on the relationship side of things. We’ve drifted far out of the currents of a love affair into the milder waters of lukewarm seas.

Yes, on what should be a honeymoon cruise with the love of our lives, we’re still stuck in the harbor. The U.S.S. Relation Ship is still tied to the moors. Think about it. Have we really become intimate or even consummated the relationship with our God? (And if you don’t know the answer to that one, please don’t even wait for the ball to drop at midnight! Shoot me an email.)

Ask yourself, have I become filled and intoxicated with him? Or, am I still too busy planning the wedding or packing my suitcases or just being distracted with the guest lists to have even allowed myself time just to be in his arms? To smell his cologne and nestle on his neck and to feel his arms around you? That nearness, those intimate moments, should be so desirable that you crave it above all else. This, the essence of a love-based relationship, is exactly what your God wants with you! He is the lover of your soul!

Now, I have to pause a moment to look at this a little more. Wouldn’t it be ludicrous if a young woman, espoused to be married, remained content her whole life just to know that someday she will be with him, but never spent any time getting to know him? No phone calls, cards or gifts? Not one romantic date or passionate embrace? Indeed, if she didn’t even know his voice, you would certainly conclude there must be no love there. This must be a marriage of convenience, of status, or political unions, of necessity, or some other thing, but this isn’t true love.

I want the hot love affair with God, do you? I would rather have some passion than some old stale religion. I can’t wait to be with him at the marriage supper. I can’t wait to spend eternity in his heavenly city and to revel is his presence, but don’t you want to know his voice and hear him more now? Today? Shouldn’t his love color all your days and quicken your heart?

Heaven help us not only to untie the Relation Ship and get out of the harbor, but to become head over heels in love with the Lord. To learn what it means to walk hand in hand with him on the deck. To feel his kiss at the sunset and to hear his whisper of love in the winds. To stay the course with our heavenly Father whose love surpasses everything and anything this earthly life offers, and not from a sense of guilt or failure, but true desire, a hot and passionate love that burns deep in our spirits.

God, teach and mold us into the image of your perfect love. Touch and transform us deeply within so that love becomes us. Just as in marriage, the mysterious example of Christ and his bride, and just as Jesus said in the garden his last night on earth, bring us into complete unity that we may be one. (John 17)

Now that’s a powerful resolution.