Deuteronomy 6:5
"You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your strength."
I have to be honest: when I first saw that this was the verse for my reading today, I almost skipped it.
This verse has been read so many times on so many occasions for so many reasons. Every Sunday School attendee memorizes it within the first year. I wish I could say I'm one of those people who can read a verse as if it's the first time every time. But I'm not. Sometimes reading the Bible is work.
It's work to look at a verse you've read over and over for over 20 years and try to see something new from it. So I almost skipped it. But then the words spoken by our school's guest speaker at chapel last week popped into my head: "If you sit down to read the Bible with the honest intention of hearing from God, you'll be amazed how quickly you hear from Him."
So I mustered my strength and read it again for the 111th time: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."
I think I know why it's so easy to skip this verse: we know it's completely unattainable. We can never love someone this perfectly. So why try? Why would God put this verse in the Bible when He knows we'll never attain it this side of heaven? And that's when He stared speaking.
The first thing I heard?
This is another command - "You shall." No maybes. No if-you-feel-like-its.
Because God knows: if we don't love Him, we'll love someone else. SomeTHING else. Work. Spouse. Children. Alcohol. Wallowing. Anger. Self-Pity.
There's a hole in our hearts, and we try to fill it with oh, so many things. If there's not room in our hearts for God, how can there be room for others? There is only room for self.
And that's when I heard the second thing:
How are we to love Him? Half-heartedly? When we have time? No!
With. Everything. We. Have.
"All your heart, all your soul, all your strength."
Because when your heart is full of love, then you have a heart to fill up with God's love, a heart that love the people God loves.
And. God. Loves. Everyone.
The atheists.
The liberals.
The gays.
The nerds.
The unlovable.
If our hearts are full of God's love, then we will be loving towards everyone.
Because when your soul is full of love, there's no room for love of self. Your soul becomes God's; your soul becomes for others.
You empathize; you feel their pain. Your soul aches and rejoices with theirs; there is no. Room. For Self.
Because when you love with all your strength, you're exhausted, poured out; you've given it all willingly, joyfully, sacrificially.
You have no strength for anything - except God and others.
And that's how it should be.
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