Broken
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” Hebrews 13:5 NASB
Forsake – Yesterday I went to see a movie called Leave No Trace. I just picked this movie because I had nothing else to do. I knew nothing about it before I went. As it turned out, after the movie I cried all the way home. It is the story of an ex-military father and his daughter. The wife (mother) is either dead or gone. The daughter and the father live in the woods, avoiding all contact with the outside world. Eventually we discover that the man has had enormous trauma in combat, and now cannot be around other people. But his daughter, probably about 13 or 14, is caught up in this trauma and has been living in the woods with him for a long time. They are discovered, and attempts are made to “civilize” them. The father cannot deal with it all and they run away to the woods again. This time the daughter nearly dies. He saves her life. Then he is injured and she saves him by getting help from a small community. During the recovery process, she discovers that she wants to be with other people. In the final dramatic scene, the father and daughter are heading back into the woods. She stops and tells him, “What’s wrong with you isn’t wrong with me.” She tells him she is not going with him, that she has paid ($5) for them to rent an RV and stay. She can no longer disappear into the woods. The scene is heartbreaking as we realize that he cannot stay despite his incredible love for her. She walks back to the community, meeting a dog and says to the animal, “He just couldn’t stay.” The last scene is the daughter hanging a bag a food in the tree in the hope that he will come to get it. He doesn’t.
I don’t know who made the movie or why. All I know is that every scene gripped me, made me afraid for the daughter, drew on something deep within me about vulnerability and, in the end, left me incredibly sad. Sad that he couldn’t face his fears. Sad that she was pulled into them. Sad that he left her. Sad that she had to leave him. If you are ready to experience pathos, hope and hopelessness, then perhaps you will want to see this movie. Perhaps not.
Broken people. That’s what we are—all around us the cry for someone to love us more than the need to hide. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why the author of this passage in Hebrews uses the strongest possible expression for “never” in Greek—the combination of both the conditional and the absolute negative particles—‘ou me. Literally, it says, “I will not absolutely under any conditions never without regard to any circumstances forsake you.” The verb is egkataleipō—to leave behind. But that’s exactly what happened in the movie. Both people were left behind. Both were emotionally and spiritually wounded—by something beyond their control. Neither one had someone who would never ever forsake them.
The tears are streaming again. How I long for someone who won’t abandon me. The ‘ou me person. I’m afraid to admit this, but, right now it’s just not enough to hear a promise. Right now I need someone to turn around and come with me on the path.
Topical Index: Leave No Trace, forsake, egkataleipō, ‘ou me, never, Hebrews 13:5
When I look at your life or what little I truly know Skip, I see a man that gets to travel, too places I will never see. Lectures all over the world,and has connections beyond what most people have in a lifetime and writes books. I think you relate too David though he was king , hundreds around him, he seemed to be a very lonely man too.Your one line ” I had nothing to do says it all”. Most of us are just every day people, pretty obscure to the world in general and can cope with being alone and not feel lonely and find that promise very true and real.To be honest just being an everyday person is good and his sense of being present can be very acute and known,because we can be alone with him and not feel the need to be doing all the time. Yes we need connections with others no doubt but we neglect are alone time too much. Though I debate and disagree with you often,I can say at this moment you could not be more appreciated,a small time of walking in your shoes Skip. I have learned the pressure of wanting to be understood by others and the pressure we put on them to do so ,is very cumbersome. That without that intense expectation I can truly love more . So I hang out with the one who knows me best Abba and Yeshua who made that promise too become a true reality for me.
Hello Pam, if the post I put came up first, I apologize. I did not hit reply. B. B.
Thank you for your encouragement. Yes, my life seems full from the outside, but like David (I suspect) there is a great deal of emptiness on the inside–and emptiness that is terrifying and that I don’t like to say much about for fear of being pushed away (too real to deal with). A movie like this one catches me off-guard and reveals this deep trauma, something I cannot control by choosing a world of manageable means. But I suspect that I’m not the only one, as Paul suggests in Romans 3:23 (I will write about this very soon).
So true! When I put on my manager hat in my small community it makes for very unhappy results. The servant hat is better, and no hat is even better.
no Skip you aren’t the only one…
Recently we moved from our home of almost 30 years to a completely new community. Left behind all our friends and community. So hard to make friends on a small town, so we have to rely on each other and Yahovah more. It hasn’t been easy but we are doing it. And, Skip, I really enjoy you sharing your adventures with us, I get to see places I may never see in person, so thank you very much. And I pray that emptiness be filled within you with complete and total love.
Pam, only Skip can do what he does. That doesn’t mean he has all the answers regarding issues related or unrelated to his expertise or that he has it all together (all the time!). I don’t think we should elevate anyone to a position so high that we see the person as a kind of ‘god’. It happens all the time. Sometimes just because the person has DR. in front of his or her name. There are many who do have DR. who don’t know what they are talking about! Can’t learn anything from them and trusting them could affect you negatively (or kill you). Regardless, I almost always try to find a DR whose position is the same as mine because of this type of thinking. They won’t listen to me because I don’t have a DR. In front of my name.
But about you Pam? I don’t know a thing about your situation but I have some questions for you:
1. Why can’t you travel or travel to more places?
2. Why can’t you write a book?
Just wondering.
Jeanette,It’s simple ,it’s not in my budget to travel,I’m perfectly healthy. Second yes I am capable of writing a book,but you need something to write about.Third not one to set anyone on a pedestal . It was nice of you too ask?? thank you.
I remember that moment many years ago in my first year of college when I began to realize one of the most profound realities of my life, that, “I walk this earth alone.”
It was in that moment that it began to know that no one will ever really fully know me for who I am. No one will ever know all my thoughts, exactly how I feel, my true intentions, or my real needs at the deepest level. At best, I would be known and understood only in the most limited way. And, also, because of this reality, I knew that, essentially, no one would, or could, truly and fully love me as I am.
Therefore, I began to realize that, actually and really, there was no one that I could completely depend upon to be there for me at all times for whatever my needs might be. Essentially, I began to realize that truthfully, even though there are some who do know and love me in part, when it comes right down to it, “I really do walk this earth alone.”
Now, of course, that, in and of it’s self, is, by far, not a reassuring realization. However, it did begin to help me except that there is no one on this earth that I can completely trust to always be there for me in all the ways I might need, especially in the deepest emotional sense.
“Begin”, I said.
In actuality, it continues to be a painful process of that growing realization and acceptance.
What has helped me the most, in addition to receiving the “baptism of the Holy Spirit”, “the Comforter”, is Yahweh bringing me to the point of, as complete of a surrender to him as possible of everything that I could surrender and literally crying out to him in desperation to be my All in all.
Crying alone, as in a vacuum, is one of the most painful things we can do. However, crying to God in child-like desperation of faith can lead to another one of life‘s most profound realities.
Crying to God in surrendered faith can be the greatest prayer of all, in and of itself!
We really do NOT EVER HAVE to walk on this earth alone.
For as he has promised…..
“I will never leave you nor for sake you.”
We can know this reality at the deepest emotional level.
He WILL be our ALL in all!
In exactly one generation – the generation of the twelve apostles – the gospel was “preached to every creature under heaven”. I have read estimates that as much as one person in four was converted. In the beginning these people crowded into the local synagogues, but as the antipathy between the Jews and the followers of the Way deepened, and as they kept getting “thrown out of the synagogues”, they developed their own gatherings. These gatherings were not only house ecclesias: they were not only groups of people pooling common resources: they were entire communities spontaneously mushrooming. Defined by a common bond within and persecution without, these communities lived out the ancient Mosaic pattern (that was followed (kinda) in the wilderness, but was, as far as I can tell, pretty much abandoned as soon as they got to the promised land and I have wondered if they perhaps had it too good to continue the community at the level people really need community at?). The entire world got to see the survival movies of that day lived out by these people who had each others’ backs and were succeeding in living outside the crutches the rest of society had to live under, and “loved not their lives unto the death”. The supreme attraction! I think this may be one of the reasons the coliseums were so crowded with spectators. Those who watched one day, perhaps became a part of these communities the next.
We can see these spontaneous tight-knit groups where people have each others’ backs no matter what, and are intimately concerned with each other’s fitness to engage correctly with the world because it affects everybody else, mostly in places defined by pressure from the outside world. In prisons; in groups operating outside the mores or safety nets of society; or other places where survival is up to the group to achieve, people immediately turn to that instinctual discipline/bonding that the Bible spells out. I have noticed in situations (such as the above movie) where the body count is too low, unity cannot work well: the disfunction of individuals defines the group. But in larger groups this can start to weed itself out and the hard work of correcting disfunction can take place. I think the real appeal of these survival scenarios is because we are all hungry for that bonding/healing that has the opportunity to take place when we remove the crutches of society that we built to pave over the disfunction we lack the tools to do something about.
We who live in the promised land of today do not have ‘everything’: we have leaned into the security systems of the world and so have lost the security found only in the freedom of true community: in that solidarity the world has never been able to build. We can see this community in the persecuted Body today. In restricted countries these people are shining the light of brotherhood to a very lost world, and what a light it is! The underground churches are exploding in forgotten places such as North Korea, Columbia, Sudan or Nigeria (which now boasts over a hundred thousand widows and orphans in its attempt to wipe Christianity out) but I think these places have something we lack: the solidarity that seems to only be found in those who “love not their lives unto the death”.
In a world defined by death, perhaps it is only those who have gotten over the need for the security systems of the world designed by those who fear death, who can move beyond the necessary narcissism required to conform to the solitary lifestyle those systems dictate. True solidarity smashes through all the safety nets of the world because it has something better. May we find the courage to move beyond the lullaby of the world and wake up to the responsibility required of those who no longer want to be propped up in their loneliness. May we who “press toward the high calling” realize that the high calling is that we press together!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5KbOEgc2OI&list=RDc5KbOEgc2OI
We all have this longing…Yes!!! He will never leave us!!!
Most people with a lot of money have one chief desire:
MORE money. If human nature has a clear deficit, it’s
the need for MORE.
More of what we know makes us comfortable, and it can
even create a false sense that we have control. To admit
to ourselves, or to anyone else, that we’re really not in all
that much control, is a painful admission. Man’s need for MORE,
whatever it may be, is life’s desperate struggle right to the end.
But, oh, the revelation of the One who IS the need provider —
and who IS Himself all that any man will ever truly need!
Who among us has asked too much of someone we love? I searched the web for this movie, watched the trailer and was taken back to a place in my past that remains painful. I will have to drive 120 miles one-way to see this film, and I must do so by Thursday. Or wait… The trailer was, hauntingly, enough. Yet, even as I write that, I know the place in me that wants healing will urge contemplation about making the drive… will urge all day, as I spend time alone in a group. Alone with the key in my hand that can unlock the door of the cage my demons are trapped in.
And yesterday I watched Brené Brown’s “Listening to Shame” TED talk. YouTube “randomly” offered it to me next-up on my app. Now I ask, “Randomly?” Another layer peeled away.
Thank you, Skip, for being vulnerable and connecting dots that can lead to healing and freedom, tears and all.
“…emotionally and spiritually wounded—by something beyond … control.”
Or you could wait until it comes out on Netflix. 🙂
and this might seem paradoxical, but the anonymity of a large theater is a safer environment.
One of the characteristics of the Greek paradigm is that we are an AUDIENCE, removed from the actual stage, so that we can be DETACHED OBSERVERS of the world. In fact, in Greek thought “nature” is defined as “everything except us.” You can see how this unspoken assumption influences our sense of safety.
Yes we all have cracks in our pots, that’s what let’s the light out. Thanks for sharing from your depths Skip. I was abandoned by my mother at the age of four yet as she had taught me God was real I clung to him like a flag pole in the ensuing hurricanes. They never seem to let up but I know where my hope lies.
Yet also he has so graciously lead me to understand. Understanding seems to come when we stop trying to understand but simply turn to Him and trust..
You, me, we all where created to be what we are. You and I are fine- as we are. We actually lack nothing but connection to our sorce of life. When we disconnect we suffer when we re engage we thrive.
What we lack Yahovah can and will provide, general through those about us.We need one another because others have what we lack.We where made incomplete in ourselves, because no one but God is complete in himself.Yet we are in Him so he is our wholeness and sufficiency: our Source of life, he provides all we lack-That is the mystery of Godliness- the truth of Righteousness.
Thank you for your part in fulfilling my lack, you are at times strong where I am weak.You are able where I sometimes am not. It is together we are made whole, not alone.
It is ok to be just as we are now, for that is reality;
Up Until Now…
Up until now I allowed a disconnect between my heart and my head. Up until now I could feel the big ball of emotions; my reactions to others pulsating just outside of my gut. Some feelings I could discern others would flood me there were many and so strong, I could not differentiate them.
Up until now I would hide from them in the strong tower of my understanding of the love of God. I could run into my emotional love for others and not have to feel their suffering because it would overwhelm me. I could avoid the fact that I had contributed to their suffering by feeling loving but not always acting in loving way’s.
Up until now when I was at rest, calm or safe I could feel other’s pain, suffering and struggles. Sometimes it would scare me. Sometimes I tried to fix them because I thought I was god and thought I could, or I was arrogant enough to believe I actually understood.
Up until now I sometimes hid from the reality of the struggles and pain that is this life. Up until now I thought I could hide, but then I realized this is life, and it is now or it is not at all.
Now life to me is in the communication of the reality of our true existence to one another and God is at the very heart of it. Up until now I stood sometimes on the outside of real life or I would skate on the surface of it, thinking I understood,
Up until now…
“Yesterday I went to see a movie called Leave No Trace. I just picked this movie because I had nothing else to do.”
Perhaps you THOUGHT you had nothing else to do, but, apparently, Hashem knew EXACTLY what you needed to do… because He never deserts us or forsakes us.
“All is foreseen, and man is responsible”
“All is forseen”. Is that consistent with the “Limited Omniscience of God”?
I don’t think so, but it’s what the rabbis taught. 🙂
Tears….from a man I truly admire…for a walk that he has sometimes had to drag one foot to go in front of the other…. tears. Not today Skip….not today …. you are not alone. We walk with you.
So says the “Guy with his head in the sand”. We are and become and live out what we think & dwell on. It was interesting to me, the the father CHOSE to go back to his loneliness and the daughter CHOSE to return to life in/and community. Sometimes,or maybe always, we choose our loneliness or joy. A promise often requires action on our part .Most of God’s promises I find in scripture has an IF. That if means I have to do something. The one with no IF was “I will NEVER leave you or FORSAKE you” So our loneliness or joy depends on our mindset/awareness. In Matt. 7:7-11 Jesus tells us to “Ask and it shall be given you, Seek, and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you”. When things get tough I always think of James. What did he say? James 1: 2 ” Count it all Joy, my brothers, when you meet various trials”. I realize that that can be, for many, a tough journey. But with God,”all things are possible” I’m with Pam “I hang out with the one who knows me best Abba and Yeshua”. Whatever—Shalom
From the outside it looks like CHOICE. But I can tell you from the inside it is not choosing. It is being overwhelmed by something greater than my ability to choose. It is being dragged back to the woods because the world is toxic. And the loss is more unbearable than one can ever describe.
I’m not as word wise as Laurita and the others, and I also always end up in left field .But I agree and hear what your saying. But who helps us make those ‘choices’–grated we have to let Him. Between WWII and now I’ve had my share, including losing everything I ever own, except my family, due to my choices, when I didn’t consult God first. and other’s. But I’ve found joy and peace–and also cry– but the joy and peace still remains firm. Thanks Skip.
Hi Sugar Ray,do not feel you have to explain that you have peace and joy ,its not a sin for goodness sake. Others are at different places and this can be a heavy blog at times. No one should feel guilty about expressing that joy ,nor should one feel guilty if its temporarily lost.
Hello again Pam, Always enjoy your comments, and thanks again. but believe me I do not feel guilty where I stand.
It may sound strange, but I enjoy difference of opinion, that’s where I learn. Infact I sometimes feel uncomfortable in groups where we all agree I also need to explain my view so that I know and realize what I really think/believe. I may not know where I stand until i’ve said it. Have you ever said to yourself, “did I say that”, I have. Love,Grace and lots of Shalom.
Sugar Ray; you wear your heart on your sleeve: you don’t need to dig for it with measly words.
Laurita your awesome
We are both awesome because He is! Halleluah!
should have added—Yes the world toxic, but that’s what we are here for.
Ecc 6:3-5 is a word of caution as we often tend and care for others neglecting ourselves.
The only answer is Matt11:25-30.
May God reveal salvation unto those suffering from this anxiety depression disorder that keeps many from finding His peace and comfort and chasing things that cannot redeem themselves from their addiction.
And as so often reiterated on this forum. Pray from a pure heart and connect with the spirit within as that is the one given to guide and direct.
Laurita said so often that we need to check that our choices are not separating us from God but rather bringing us closer. For with every step we take towards Him he takes two in our direction.
May Yeshua life example be our guide… 5000 followers, 72 tasked, 12 mentored yet one still sold him out. And He still has to do all the work self…
It is not multitude that counts, it is those few that share the commin bond of love that are united in His name that bring about His revelation.
Skip if I may. I advise others to take time off. Shut others out and focus on the ones in their inner circle. Only caring and teaching them… It may be time for you to do the same…
We have your previous scripts to read and revisit. You are maybe burning yourself out. Take a time and a time and a half if needed so that God can restore and restrengthen the vessel…
I appreciate your concern and honor your suggestion. If that time comes, I will give myself permission to take a Sabbatical. But not yet. I have work to do, for myself, and since you (all) are following along, maybe what I am doing is also helpful for you (all). Some important discoveries are occurring for me as I reconsider the place of the Bible as a healing tool, not a theological text. There is something about the West in particular that wants to catalog, analyze, dissect and derive “timeless” truths from the stories of people in Scripture. But doing so often robs us of the humanness of these people, and so we are left with creeds without heart. As my dear friend John said, the intellectual train can only take us so far, but where we need to go is past the end of those tracks.
Well said. I’ve learned to embrace my time in the wilderness. The flesh falls off and my brokeness is revealed. A time to work past knowledge and face the darkness that lives within. Worth the agony. Again and again, it’s a joyful pain to leave self and live for Yahusha. Much love as you pass through the fire. Shalom brother.
Thank you for the response and further eye opening comment. I need to revisit my understanding of taking time to consider…
All emotions are communal and emptiness , chaos, darkness are part of the birthplace of life. Holding hope and hopelessness in devine tension is a mature space. I in no way minimize the trembling of entering in and the striving to stay in Sabbath rest, yet these are places of great faith and where great faith is strengthened. You have helped us perceive faith as relational reciprocal communal trust. Years ago you encouraged us to move beyond our natural compassions and be open to gut wrenching emotional relationship. To be the voice for the voiceless and the hope for the hopeless is an honor and a privilege. Thanks for not giving up or letting go and living transparently.
Hi everyone, Jeff here. Yes, when we get real and honest, it’s a lonely world filled with hurting people.
Acts 10:38 states that Yeahua came to heal the broken hearted, those oppressed by the devil.
The love of the Father is such a rare occurrence. We adapt, we conform, we survive.
I agree with you up to oppressed by the devil. then the question comes. Why is God’s love “such a rare occurrence” if we are really seeking him? –now I’m in trouble again —got to get my head out of the sand. Sorry Jeff, your dealing with a 94 year old who is outside and not inside.
shalom
Hey Skip, I have been praying for you throughout the day. You come to mind again this evening. Amazing what we go through as we develop in our walk with God. The scripture came to mind from First Corinthians 13:12. Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face-to-face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known“. I think here on earth we will have varying degrees of being known by others. God knows us fully right now. Someone (Graham Cooke) once said God is never disillusioned by us because he never has an illusion of us in the first place . Personally speaking, there is so much about me that I would like to reveal especially to those I am closest to, but very few have the capacity to hear our full story. As a result we are left with a certain amount, sometimes it seems a large amount of isolation, separateness and loneliness. It is natural to want to be fully known but I think for some reason God has restricted that type of knowing for himself. Maybe because we so easily tend to replace God with what we can see, feel and handle! These are just some thoughts. Not trying to fix anything for you, but I do care about your pain. Wouldn’t want to remove it because God has a purpose in it for you.
I do agree with one of the last things you said about knowing intellectually and knowing actually by experience.
One last thing, it seems that it all began in the garden. Eve and Adam tried to hide from God. Apparently they had a wrong perception of God and how he would react to their disobedience. Like us, they didn’t run to him, they ran from him. Maybe when we grow in our knowledge of the love of God we will be more likely to run to him instead of away from him, And sometimes it doesn’t seem we run from him, we just sort of shut down because we don’t feel we have the capacity to deal with what we are feeling. Truly, we are fearfully and wonderfully made! Psalm 139, I believe.
Shalom.
Most break and simply heal. Some break and deeply feel the pain somewhere in the deep, yawning, cavernous soul that cannot be plumbed, nor its dark darkness lit. An ontological pain for the privilege of being a human being. But I suspect most eventually discover that it is in their weeping, not their pain, that they realize they are alive. Perhaps something begins arise within to fill that void when they first sense the single moist drop upon their cheek and taste the saltiness of their own tears. It is like a gentle spring rain that suddenly brings awareness to all creation that life is briming with fecundity. The thought then appear deep in the black, fertile soil of their mind that perhaps some tomorrow they may yet again bear fruit. So it is in spirit that the battle is lost or won, but it is known to us though the soul. (forgive my Nee-jerk Greek)
But there are those of us to whom ennui would be estacy, who feel no pain, but only the nihility of everything. I have been told so often that I cannot weep because I am frozen in the winter of my desolation and despair because my Heavenly bank account is depleted (or never opened in earnest). But maybe it’s not my depletion or overdraft, but mine, yours and ours? Maybe we are all on the outside looking outward. Personally, though depressed I don’t need your prayer. Or pity. Or pantry. I need you, not what you have. But, alas you do not give you….maybe you can’t. Upon examination I admit that I can’t because I don’t know how. Will someone please model this so I can see. Hmmm. Wait. I suspect this someone was Yeshua….and you? Will you?
I am concerned, and perplexed, by this: “But, alas you do not give you….maybe you can’t.” Honestly, do you feel as if I am not giving myself? No criticism here, but a reality check for me.
Michael, we are a Body. Your frost is mine; your hunger and Skip’s and all the silent ones who don’t even know that they cannot speak; all the suffering and need is shared when we plug into each other. I think this is the real reason the Pharisee passed over to the side of the road: he didn’t want to feel another’s pain. I think Skip is experiencing, on some level, our need: it just looks like his, for now it is. This is a Body.
The law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for heaven and for earth. Life IS the freely chosen relinquishment of self interest in the interest of others. Our Example showed us the very heart of God who relinquished all for us. This is the love that pours through us. We have been given the injunction “bear one another’s burdens”. When we love, your burden rests on me, too. but because we are all strong together, that burden crushes nobody. It is only when we hide in pride – in the interests of self, whether it be self hatred or self pity or self whatever – that the Body suffers, for what is not given to the heart of God to carry cannot be shared by His Body either.
We share a collective hole in the soul that only the collective can fill. Your pain, paradoxically, only hurts the Body when it has not been surrendered to the Head for healing. We heal as a unit, even as our body biome works together to heal itself. Michael, I have cried for you and for all the others who don’t even have a voice. I am crying now. Thank you for those tears. I will know when you can cry because I will then quit crying for you. Until then, I guess your tears are mine. Salut!
It seems to me that this topic which Skip has addressed with us has really hit a nerve. Maybe we need to look at it a little more? Not just turn the page and go to a different topic?
Made me think of a Ted talk I listened to a few years back. ‘The person you really need to marry’ by Tracy McMillan. Everything took me by surprise.
I’ll look for that one for sure!
Thank you for your brave vulnerability and not leaving the “arena”. Embracing the concepts in the Body Keeps the Score is life changing and I am amazed how Hashem created this check point for healing for us.
I have not yet arrived, but I have found Him. I have not yet been made fully whole, but He is healing me. Others have helped me along the way, but only HE is my good Shepherd. Only HE is my near companion. Only HE is my ALL in all!
Please stick with me here. Consider this line of thinking.
Messiah gave clarification as to who is TRUE FAMILY and, by implication, who is not.
This is what he said in response to being told that his “mother and brothers” had come to see him: “‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For WHOEVER DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER IN HEAVEN is my brother and sister and mother.’” [Mat 12:46-50]
And he also gave clarification as to who are not his TRUE DISCIPLES and, by implication, who are.
This is what he said, using hyperbole of course, about who are not his disciples: “If anyone comes to me and does not HATE HIS OWN FATHER AND MOTHER AND WIFE AND CHILDREN AND BROTHERS AND SISTERS, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” [Luk 14:26]
Finally, Messiah gave clarification as to who is not WORTHY OF HIM, and by implication, who is.
This is what he said of how we should not too highly value family: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” [Mat 10:37]
NOW…..if Messiah says this about our relationships with blood relatives and even spouses, then we REALLY ought not to think that we should be longing for someone other than HIM to fulfill even a promise to not leave us nor forsake us, and to turn to us and walk with us on the path.
The divinely inspired writer of Hebrews wrote, “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have”, right?
Well, like many, many things in this life, we NEED money, do we not? So, do we really think this admonishment is just about the love of MONEY?
How about the love of OTHERS and the love of seeking the attention, affirmation, validation, acceptance, approval, esteem, companionship, pleasure, delight, encouragement, comfort, consolation, or any such DEEP EMOTIONAL NEED from OTHERS? Don’t we NEED these things? This is not about needing or desiring to have these things. It IS about valuing ANYTHING or ANYONE, before HIM. It IS about seeking the fulfillment of ANY of our needs from ANYTHING or ANYONE before seeking it from HIM.
NO! He is a jealous God. We MUST make sure that our character is FREE from even the love of not only money, but also the love of OTHERS and love FROM others! And the only way to do that is to heed Jeremiah’s admonishment:
“You will seek Me and find Me, when you will search for Me with all your heart.” [Jer 29:13]
It’s just not enough for ANY OF US to merely HEAR a promise! We need the promise to be FULFILLED.
However, the only way for this promise to be fulfilled is to stop seeking it from OTHERS and OTHER THINGS and to seek it from HIM, alone!
HE, ALONE, CAN BE OUR ALL IN ALL!!! And He WILL…..if we diligently seek HIM!