Soak it up!

Since my Dad died, I am trying to slow down and smell the flowers a bit more. Spending a year with a man whose cancer gradually reduced him to total helplessness, made me realize that most of what I was doing with my life, though good and even efficient, is not going to matter all that much when they close the lid on my coffin someday! But, people will remember the conversations, the real interest in who they are, investments of time and love, so I’m slowing....

And, for a man who is driven by nature, who likes to ‘get things done,’ that’s not as easy as it sounds. For example, a year ago, if someone had suggested to me that I should have an Irish Setter in my house, I would have laughed! I would have told you, “I don’t have time for that!” Now, I have a dog and yes, she demands time. However, I think I’m a better man for making the time to love a dog!

Disciple, do you know how to love Jesus Christ?
Does your practice of Christianity include time to love Him, or is it primarily functional?
Are you getting all the right things done - going to church, praying as you ready yourself for each new day, catching a few moments in the Bible here and there, giving regularly to the church - and yet missing out on knowing Him?

We sing, “what a friend we have in Jesus,” but I do not think most of us understand what that requires of us. We speak of worship, but again, most of us make quick work of our so-called acts of devotion, as though loving Him were a matter of working through a checklist. Even our so-called ‘worship services’ are governed by time consciousness. May I suggest that we need to slow down and learn to love Him more deeply?

Let me urge you to think less about doing something and more about just being with Him! When your eye catches a beautiful sight today - a mother loving her baby, a bird on the wing, the sun’s rays refracted into a rainbow, a smile from a child - instead of rushing past that, take a moment to thank the Lord for His gift! When you worship, privately or in a church service, be fully present and focused. This weekend the Christian world remembers the love of our Savior. We remember the Cross where the Son of God became sin for us. We remember the empty Tomb, the door of hope for all of us. Soak it up! Don’t rush past these things. Ponder them. Stop what you’re doing long enough to hear the Spirit’s whisper. Let God love you, and He will.

"And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:5-8, NIV)
___________

A friend of Jesus! Oh, what bliss
That one so weak as I
Should ever have a Friend like this
To lead me to the sky!

A Friend when life’s short race is o’er
A Friend when earth is past,
A Friend to meet on Heaven’s shore,
A Friend when home at last!

Friendship with Jesus!
Fellowship divine!
Oh, what blessed, sweet communion!
Jesus is a Friend of mine.

- Joseph Ludgate, 1898, public domain