From Lists to Loving

“…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your might.” 

Deut. 6:5

Have you ever been totally frustrated to the point of burnout over the seemingly endless list of “do’s” and “don’ts” in the Bible?  I certainly have!  Literally every page, poem, proverb and story, be it historical or allegorical, screams out something that I am expected to do or not to do.  Similarly, every sermon I hear takes me down the same rabbit hole, adding more to my unending list.  At times, I feel as if I can join Paul in saying, “O wretched man that I am!...” (Romans 7:24)  Any step I take to work on this growing list is met with add-ons as I turn the page or tune in another Christian radio or TV program.  Each time I bend my knee in prayer, I am reminded of my total inability to achieve any real success in working on my (God’s) list.  Even when I think I am finally making some progress on a couple of critical items, I am shaken out of my sense of accomplishment by the realization and reminder that it’s really pride that prompts me to relax a bit in my false sense of accomplishment.  So back to the sense of being overwhelmed with it all.

I once thought that the weighty lists of the Old Testament Law were unbearable, but then I considered…at least there was a relatively finite list for people to work on.  At least this ‘legalistic list of laws’ is seemingly focused on things that are doable.  You know…attend this feast on this day, wash this way, eat or don’t eat this or that, etc.  One would think you could at least have a sense of progress or accomplishment as you worked this “checklist.”  But God… 

Jesus reveals that the Jews historically similarly missed the Spirit of the Law by approaching it and God with a checklist mentality.  Men in particular are checklist oriented given our innate task orientation.  Why not approach the things of God with such a mentality since the Old Testament Law and New Testament urgings are written by God, who by the way is revealed by masculine attributes, through men (males, that is) in a well organized, tightly structured, mutually reinforced LIST…of testaments, books, chapters and verses.  We men love things like this.  Is there any wonder the world tends to approach the Bible with a checklist mentality?

But this approach is all blown away by the top, #1 requirement on “The List,” namely that we love the Lord our God with ALL…all our heart, all our soul, and all our might.  Approaching the Word with a list mentality means getting “un-stickably stuck,” so to speak, on this one item.  Consider that, loving God with all literally would leave no heart, soul or mind power or ability to work down any further on God’s list.  With a list mentality, this first item takes our breath away, leaving us feeling totally overwhelmed…burned-out before we even start our work.

Alas, that is exactly what God has in mind and intends us to be…burned out: out of any sense of our selfish pride that we can aspire to work down His list.  If the Law was given to reveal sin, then Christ and the New Testament are given to reveal our total incompetence to work down God’s list..  While the Bible is indeed a well organized “list,” it is written from God’s Spirit to our spirits to advise, inform and continually confirm our incompetence to satisfy even one item on His list of awesome requirements for our lives.  Its core message is for us to come and allow His Word to burn “you” and “self” out of “yourself”… burn-out, as it were, so He can fill us with Himself, His love, His will (which is His list), and the power of His Spirit, through Jesus Christ, to fulfill His requirements. 

So go ahead, embrace burn-out; not from the perspective of being overwhelmed, but allowing Him to “reinvigorate, resuscitate, rehabilitate and renew” you.  Only then will His Word in you bear through you the fruit He requires of you.

Happy burn-out!