25Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Luke 10:25-29
26 “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”
27He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”
28 “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”
29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
When we think something will give us a certain better future, we will pour our heart, soul, strength and mind into the Object of our Hope.
Pouring our whole self into an Object other than Jesus will leave us burned out.
We can run for a long time on our own energy. God made us in his image! God made us with a humongous capacity to do and be. We can create, serve, drive and push until we simply can’t go any more all because we love what we do.
When our energy runs out…then what?
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is about the Object of Hope and the Pillar of Love. What does it look like to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength?
The two roles in Jesus’ day who everyone would say loved God were the priests and Levites. Outwardly, they would have everything together so it was obvious they loved God. So much so, they would not have the time or ability to help this person who was in life threatening need.
They wouldn’t have the time because they had to get to their religious duties.
They wouldn’t have the ability because touching blood or a dead person (should he perish) would leave them unclean to worship God.
They loved religious activity and religious leadership more than they loved a human…and ultimately more than they loved God.
On the heels of this story, Luke tells us the story of Martha being distracted with much serving while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus. Martha loved the doing more than being at Jesus’ feet.
I believe the parable and the real life example are intended to teach the same thing…
Make sure our Pillar of Love sits on the Foundation of Jesus.
God is the creator of our biological life.
God blew the Breath of the Life of the soul into us.
If we decide to crucify our biological life with Christ, we will get all of our mind, soul, strength and heart back. We will get it all back 1,000x over because we will receive Jesus’ mind, soul, strength and heart in return.
In leadership, we’re used to sacrificing for the mission because we love the mission. We’re not used to sacrificing ourselves for someone else. We are especially not used to sacrificing ourselves for Someone we cannot see.
We’re also used to doing and doing until we can’t do anymore out of our own strength.
We’re also used to making ourselves look good…either religiously…or just because we’re supposed to “have it all together.”
If you decide and train yourself to love God with all of who you are through sacrificing all of who you are to him, you will find you’ll receive way more than you ask or imagine in return.
The goal is to lead you to engage with God’s Word so you can Hear & Follow Jesus in the everyday…especially in your leadership. Sign up for daily emails HERE so you can have the content delivered directly to you. You’ll receive a 1-minute email read with a link to a 5-minute blog read each day.