until he has it all

Have you ever heard someone talk about a domesticated tiger or a bear? I’m sure it’s not very often that someone owns one, but it’s interesting to hear what they say when explaining it. There’s always the sentence included, “Oh she’s very sweet, but despite them appearing docile, they’re still a very powerful and dangerous creature…” as if to give warning for any potential harm that could arise….

You may remember a quote from C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, about Azlan, the Lion
“Well is Azlan dangerous?” “Of course he’s dangerous! But he’s good.”

In our lives we are very quick to assert ourselves as the dominant creature. Whether that be in school, a group of friends, the workplace, or our families. Yet, so many teachings of Christ plead that we should go against this grain in the fabric of society. Somewhere inside of ourselves is the desire to be primarily concerned with number one: ME. Some have made the argument that this isn’t what a loving God would do, that it’s unloving to allow us to be so entangled by such a disease of self-entitlement.

But that’s the beauty in who God is. If God’s sole purpose is to glorify Himself, and we were created in His image, then in our sinful nature, our sole purpose is to glorify ourselves. But don’t lose heart! Romans 8 talks about how God has willed from the beginning of time for us to become the image of his Son, the image he first created us in. This is good news. So we’re in the middle of this conflict within ourselves, to better promote our own image, or to submit and fulfill the image that we created intentionally for…

The bad news, (if you wanted to call it that), is the process by which we get there. Walking a life of faith is much harder than waking up early-ish on a Sunday morning and painfully forcing out smiles to the semi-familiar faces at church. Walking the life of faith God called us to is much harder than “being a good person.”

And here’s why:

God is loving, God is beautiful, God is merciful, God is full of grace.
However, God desires holiness and righteousness. If he ceased to require this, he would cease to be God.

So in the life of faith we choose to walk after Him, a very uncomfortable thing starts to happen. Just as when an object gets closer to something as majestic and powerful as the sun… that object is burned, consumed, and destroyed… until it finally arrives and is part of the burning mass of the sun itself.

Living by faith is uncomfortable many times. We feel heat rising and our instinct is to run backwards, away from the pain. Unfortunately, we too often fail at recognizing this process for what it is: our sanctification. God requires holiness, right? So in light of His requirement, a couple of things happened, 1: Christ paid for sin in order to fulfill that righteous requirement (Romans 8), 2: Our surrender to Christ’s payment for sin is also our surrender to the burning flame of God’s requirement.

I think too often we are satisfied with the first part of that, and never consider the life Christ called us to in the second part.

We’re content with saying, “Ok, Christ died for my sin… I’m ok with that. Thank you, God.”

But we’ve much more wary to say, “Christ, I surrender to you my life, and in your grace, I know you’ll take things that are not for you glory and you’ll destroy them. That might mean friends, that might mean hobbies, that might mean my job, or my possessions. But I know you require so much more than the castles I’ve built up for myself. So burn it all.”

This is why I love what Jesus says in Mark 10:13-16 about children that were coming to see Him, “Let the children come to me, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Think about that for a second. A child sees a tiger sleeping on the couch, they’d want to go pet it, right? A child is told that if they eat all their vegetables, they can have dessert. Children take what they hear from those around them, and bite it hook, line and sinker. Wholehearted acceptance. That’s what Christ is talking about! Children don’t care if you’re not qualified, good enough, smart enough, refined enough, or too dirty, ugly, or misguided. Receiving the kingdom of God like a child is to say,

“Yes, God. Burn it all.” As a beautiful and lovely song puts it, “You won’t relent until You have it all. God, my heart is yours.”

It’s eating your vegetables because you know the requirements for dessert. It’s saying, I know these things don’t please you, God, so in your power – not mine – ruin my life so that it glorifies you.

Love you guys,
thanks for reading
-m