What is it that makes your heart beat faster? Aside from health issues, chemicals or exercise, what is it that has the ability to elevate your pulse rate the fastest? As an individual saved by, and committed to serving Christ, my answer should be the obvious - but as I live out my answer, ... is it? ... really?
Now I'm not out to attack anyone's priorities or standing in their personal relationship with our Lord. No, my motivation to write this came from some questions that entered my own mind - almost as if they were a divine invitation to do some personal introspection ... and perhaps they were.
Deuteronomy 6:5 (NLT)
"And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength."
Pretty extreme really, and in a holy context, pretty radical and intimate in terms of the love required by our God. His use of the word "all" doesn't leave much in terms of "left overs" for other potential competing issues. So my re-visitation of this commandment sends me on a renewed inspection. One that brings with it observations that cultivate some questions regarding the perfection of my compliance. I thank God that He is the God who offers redemption, because my own heart could find cause for condemnation. But condemnation is not His goal or His desire. His desire is for "all" of my love, freely offered - for ultimate intimacy.
So I began to pay a little more attention to what, or to whom I pay my highest compliments to on a daily basis. What instantly makes my heart leap with excitement and affects me to the most extreme?
Now I'm thinking, given societal views of the day, that if I were to perfectly live out my obedience to this requirement and desire of my God's heart, I would acquire some labels pretty quickly. Radical and extremist are words that I'm familiar with and I could easily see them applied by some in today's world. The question then becomes ... do I care more about what society thinks or what the God whose whole motivation for creating me was for His own desire thinks ... do I really care what society thinks?
Obviously I will be forced to answer one or the other sooner or later and that's definitely something to think about. But while I might be thinking, the One who loves me with extreme passion is watching my response as it's being lived out. Would I consider following the ever changing requirements of an ungrounded society who has done little if anything for me and break the heart of the only one who loves me with a depth of love that no one else has the capacity to match? Would I choose to wound the one who is the true sole provider and source of anything that I have ever needed from the moment that He lovingly conceived of tiny me in His vast, omniscient mind? Could I turn my back on the one who suffered exquisitely for the opportunity to offer me loving reconciliation and forgiveness after I had sinned against Him?
Hmm ... ... so I'm a radical, ... and an extremist. Not a religious extremist, but a relational extremist - and I'm not alone. For example, the Apostle Paul is an extremist ...
2 Corinthians 11:2 NLT
"For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ."
I'm sure by secular society's standards, Father God would be labeled an extremist (and by mine - given the lengths He has passionately gone and continues to go to for His children) ...
Exodus 20:3-6
3 “You must not have any other god but me. 4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.
If you know the Old Testament, then you know that Father God lamented the ceremonial religion that Israel exhibited at times when their hearts were not entwined with their ceremony and service. It was because it wasn't their ceremony or their service that He wanted. What He wanted was their hearts - their love, and any service or ceremony that they performed without their hearts engaged, as demonstrated by their lives as a whole, fell short of giving Him what He allows Himself to long for from any of us. He desires relationship ... He's a relational extremist.
And Jesus? He's an extremist by most anybody's standards. I mean, who spends their whole life never living for themselves at all? His teaching was radical. He made Himself last in priority throughout His entire life and then eventually just "threw it away" for people who spurned Him. He did it for people who don't even care about Him or His sacrifice. That's pretty extreme ... but why did He do it? ... Because He's a relational extremist.
Like His Father, Jesus is all about relationships. First and primarily relationship to His Father, but then also relationships between His Father's children - Because it pleases His Father to see His children interacting with each other in the love environment that His will provides.
So, now living in a post-Christian nation and a world that seems more and more troubled and violent, I'm coming more and more to terms with the fact that I am a radical, relational extremist. I will likely be mocked and who knows, maybe even worse someday ... not unlike my redeemer. But, as I've come to know and understand what I've been allowed to know and understand of my God, I came to a life changing acknowledgment: He's what makes my heart race. He's eternal and He's made me eternal - this world isn't. In the end, He's all that matters.
When I feel His presence, the joy of knowing that He's near excites me and causes my heart to beat faster. If I'm truly in touch with the reality of who He is, what He has done and how His own heart yearns for me, praise and worship of Him brings a rush of exaltation, joy and gratitude that can be overwhelming. I am in love with my God and I am not ashamed! It's radical, it's extreme and it's intimate like His passion for me and like He's teaching me to become more and more for the rest of His children. But then, isn't this at the very least of what "all" requires? I am not perfected in waging love jihad after Jesus' example. But by His grace, patient counsel and teaching, I am learning daily to become more like Him and to love what He loves.
Doesn't the quickened heart of true love seek to quench the desires of its own desire? Isn't that what the "all" of true "love" requires? ...
Hosea 2:13-23 (NLT)
13 I will punish her for all those times when she burned incense to her images of Baal, when she put on her earrings and jewels and went out to look for her lovers but forgot all about me,” says the LORD . 14 “But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. 15 I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt. 16 When that day comes,” says the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’ instead of ‘my master.’ 17 O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips, and you will never mention them again. 18 On that day I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground so they will not harm you. I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you can live unafraid in peace and safety. 19 I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. 20 I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the LORD . 21 “In that day, I will answer,” says the LORD . “I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds. And the sky will answer the earth with rain. 22 Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees. And they in turn will answer, ‘Jezreel’—‘God plants!’ 23 At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself. I will show love to those I called ‘Not loved.’ And to those I called ‘Not my people,’ I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’ And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’”
If you really know Him well, when confronted with the jealous and passionate heart of the most true love you could ever know ... how do you respond? Radically and intimately? Does your heart beat faster? Does it beat with a passion to meet His deep passion for you?
If you know Him well, then you're probably well ahead of me. But if you don't connect with Him in this way, then you may need to press deeper to know Him. Be bold enough to step out and interact with Him in honest prayer and worship of Him. Have the faith to believe in Him enough to expect that He'll answer and respond in the best way. Do it in your closet if you have to, but I encourage you to do it! You won't regret it. He'll meet you there!
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