In cory asbury's song "do you know the way you move me" he speaks on Jesus' behalf and thanks His Beloved for giving up everything, for letting go of everything just to seek Him, just to find Him.
And He assures us that He'll meet us in our longing after Him. Isn't that beautiful? It's a gorgeous song and I encourage everyone to listen to this prophetic song that sings of Jesus' great love for His Bride.
I couldn't get pasted the part where Jesus is there thanking us repeatedly for giving up everything to follow Him. It's a little crazy actually if you think about it. I mean, this is the Son of God and He's THANKING us for choosing Him. That just directly shows the absolute joy and delight He finds in His Bride.
That's definitely the humbling aspect of this lyric but the crazy part is the sense of sacrifice that covers it. We are picking up our cross daily, giving up this, leaving that, we're "sacrificing"
….again I'm hung up on this idea of sacrifice
Lemme see if I can get us on the same page… Apart from Jesus, a favorite topic of mine is FOOD. Anyone who knows me will agree with me on this one.
Seeing that I currently live in the middle-of-nowhere Ukraine, there is little to no entertainment around these parts. There are definitely more sheep and goats than people. But something I find very entertaining and a little nugget of joy each day is breakfast. I love breakfast. I love coffee. I love sateeing onions, frying eggs, and making hashbrowns. (salt should be a 6th love language in my book) yep, it brings me joy.
But let's say I found myself in the kitchen one morning and I was just flat-out having an off day (my family might laugh at this because this supposed "off day" sounds quite normal.) I burn the hashbrowns to a fare-you-well, my eggs spread so thin in the pan I have to scrap them into a hopeless pile of nothin, and my onions cook and shrivel to thin, carbon-flavored crisps. Things aren't looking too great, right?
Attempting to keep a positive attitude, I heap my eye-sore of a breakfast onto a plate, crack a half smile and pray that salt and pepper will do the trick. On the way to pepper my inedible food, my plate slips right outta my hands (also very realistic) and covers the unswept floor full of dirt and hair (I'm on an all girls team, hair is everywhere all the time, gross I know, sorry for the detail.) After sweeping up my mess and placing it back on the plate, I realize there is no hope in faking even a sliver of positivity in this situation. I survey the damage and shamefully acknowledge that this is the best I could do for that morning. That's all I had.
And as my stomach grumbled, I longed for something more….satisfying. More appealing.
At that moment, a teammate of mine (probably Sara because she's a little ninja in the kitchen) graciously hands me the masterpiece of an omelet she'd just taken off the skillet. My eyes widen. I see the green peppers, red peppers, onions, mushrooms, garlic, and melted cheese that completely saturates this beautiful creation (is your mouth watering yet?) She gives me the option to take her plate instead. I glance at my plate; I see grit and grim covering my unimpressive "work of art". Let's just say that was the last time I saw that horrendous plate of food as I immediately and mindlessly toss it into the trash where it belonged.
Talk about an upgrade! I took hold of Sara's gift freely given to me. Guys, not only did this omelet look amazing but it tasted amazing! The savory flavors fill my mouth coating each and very tastebud, and the grumbling in my stomach instantly ceases. I was satisfied and then some.
Now this was quite a long and descriptive made-up story for a very simple and short message, and I'm confident you intelligent people already know where I am going with this…
When we give up "everything" our ways of thinking, our sinful desires, our selfishness, our pride, our best that is equivalent to that of filthy rags, our drive for success, our hopes of comfort, our results-motivated acts, basically all of our desperate attempts of finding significance in every single area apart from our Creator, we come to the end of ourselves.
And when we come to the end of ourselves and realize that our best looks like a jacked up plate of glorified cat food, we are able to get a raw glimpse of Jesus, and He invites us to feast on His goodness to behold and savor all of His splendor… Will we not "immediately and mindlessly" choose Him? Will we not bolt into a dead sprint after Him, leaving anything and everything behind in our dust? And will a ginormous smile not be slapped across our faces? Complete with cheek cramps because we just can't stop grinning from ear to ear?
This is no sacrifice folks. This just makes sense. This is trading in the cat food for the filet. What is there to lose here? Absolutely nothing! Apart from the things we need to break off ourselves like pride, our reputation, our image, and all of the other shenanigans that we let define ourselves. Once again, this is not a sacrifice, this is us stepping back into our original intent… to be fully and completely and endlessly satisfied by God's endless love for us! To throw off our faulty ways of finding worth that will only land us in a huge, messy pile of disappointment. To embrace our God given identity that is sealed with His Spirit.
Selling everything to gain infinitely more.
Reminds me of Matthew 13:44 "the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field"
This guy was probably called a lunatic by his community. His peers, most likely, questioned if the cheese had slid off his cracker if you know what I mean. But he knew better 🙂
in his joy… ah I love it… In his joy he sold all he had to possess that of infinitely greater worth. The Kingdom. Wow. That's what I'm talking about!
Let's pray for a heart of surrender, for us to see with spiritual eyes how desperately we need to come to the end of ourselves. And with this posture and mindset of surrender, we will gain Jesus 🙂 He is so freaking worth it. Man. We have everything to gain, nothing to lose.
What are we waiting for?
