There’s a difference between loving someone and being in love with someone. I love pizza, but I’m not in love with pizza (at least not publicly). I think a lot of people love God, but a much smaller number are in love with Him.
I want that kind of extravagant love for God where I love Him with everything (Luke 10:27). And the only way is to be completely in love with Him. 100% committed. Bound to Him, living life remaining in Him. He is the vine, we are the branches. We are connected to God. This attachment is by choice.
In our shortsightedness, however, we look at our relationship with the Father and take into account how much fruit we bear. Rather than lose ourselves in complete surrender through our relationship with Him – the Lover of our true selves – we focus on the product of our interaction with Him. What do we get out of it? We want people to know about the bushels of fruit we produce.
But how can you measure the fruit someone yields? You can’t. You can only measure what your version of success is. We use numbers. How many points did you score? How much money did you make last year? How many people got saved? How many kids do you have? What was your GPA? How do you rank compared to your associates? How many followers do you have? How many people know your name?
This kind of thinking has no place in the kingdom of God. Our version of success is a distraction from God’s purposes. The most humbling thing for a believer to realize, is that God asks for your obedience in all things, and you won’t be placed where you’ll be the most “effective.” That’s because our interpretation of success and God’s are conflicting. We drone on and on with all our “If only…” statements, but God assures us by saying, “You don’t know my purpose for having you here, doing what you’re doing, with these people around you. And that’s ok, but trust me. All I ask is that you obey my voice.”
If you are truly in love with Him, whatever He asks, no matter how small or inconvenient, it will be an absolute honor. You will thank Him as you work, knowing He forever has the best in mind. But that is not our natural response. What we see most often is mistaken as common sense. It sounds like the work of the devoted, but they’ve missed the point. Those who only love God, but aren’t in love with Him, try to jam God’s message of obedience through their own filter of success and force it into something it was never intended to be. Instead of obediently setting off, task in hand, they have meetings and seek others opinions and formulate their own plan. They ask themselves, “How can I accomplish this task in the most successful and effective way possible?” Mapping out their execution of God’s command, they scheme, “If I do this here instead, targeting this audience, more people will be reached. If I bring in an A-list speaker, I could market this event and more people will hear about it and attend.”
God views things differently, “Your friends pat you on the back, and you’re elevated in their eyes, but you were misguided. You produced the wrong kind of fruit and messed up the order. Now someone will go to sleep hungry because you didn’t do what I asked. You ignored my timing and the moment is lost.”
Does the church help us walk the path of righteousness or the path of least resistance? With a flash, we bolt down from our lofty position in the clouds and strike quickly. But what about the ones we burn along the way? We hit our target, but scattered the rest.
What if instead of the annual report of how much we gave to missions, how many salvations there were, and how many were baptized, we filled it with the awareness of just how many people are unreached in the world at this very moment? What if we stopped looking at what we’ve done and focused on the work of the harvest that is already upon us?
It’s like walking out into this vast field and picking a dozen ears of corn, bringing it back to your house and calling all your friends to celebrate the harvest you brought in. That’s great and all, but while we revel in our achievement with gladness and feasting in the comfort of our naiveté, millions more are withering in the unrelenting heat. They cry out, “What about me? Where’s my hope? I’m dying out here!”
Crushingly, we can’t hear them. The clinking of our drinks and the commendations of our friends drown out their plea for help. We make a toast to the minuscule portion on our plate and fill the room with grand speeches of our lives, while the lives of those in need are in peril. We will look out across the field some other time but for now, grab the ledger and document our accomplishment. Dig into your pocket and pull out your phone to capture the moment, caption the picture with updated statistics, and leave the space below for the world to applaud us for what we’ve done.
Look at all of the time and resources wasted because we want to be successful, to look accomplished in the eyes of man. We say we do it in the name of love, out of the generosity of our hearts. But our hearts are selfish, just like our love. Nobody needs that, especially God. Nothing changes in the world when we love like this and I refuse that wretched fate.
To be entirely in love with God, is to be one with Him. Born into a world of sin, we are set on a course of change to return to our Lover. If we don’t change, we are defying the God who loves us so intensely that He died to open for us a way to be in love with Himself. You are all He ever wanted. Refusing to change is to accept monotony and monotony is the death of the adventurous love in our free spirit. You see, this life is about transformation in which nothing stays the same, particularly us. And the only way down that path is to be lead in love, holding the Father’s hand.
firebeardblog 
you have this opposite way of thinking and seeing. you see beyond what is right in front of us and view the other side. your writing challenges me to see like that. God’s using you, junior. continue in your obedience to Him – you’re going higher and further than ever before.
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WOW Josh you did it again!!!! Every time I read one of your blogs…..I am truly amazed…….the Lord has given you such depth !!!! I have to read and reread each one and even then I know I probably have not taken it all in!!!! The Lord has certainly gifted you – so blessed to see that you are being obedient to his calling….Grandpa and I love you so much!!!!
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I was just going to log off as I was coming from lunch break, but decided to read just one more. I wished I had been better prepared to be wiping mascara from my eyes. lol This is so good, as usual, Josh. I’d like to think God is using this as confirmation in many ways for me. As you know from all the nonsense I sent you yesterday this has been a topic on my mind for a while. I love how you acknowledge all the work we as believers still have to do despite the many great accomplishments that have passed. The last portion especially touched my heart. Definite affirmation that this wild ride of mine is in good hands.
Thanks for sharing bud! Your talent is such a blessing.
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Tifa, your words are everything! Thank you again for reading all this stuff and letting the Holy Spirit speak to you. Like I said, you are a huge part of why this blog even exists. You inspire me to keep writing.
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