One Thing You Lack

Lately as I’ve been reading Scripture, it has occurred to me more and more that while the words mean what they say and say what they mean, there is also a deeper level, if we choose to look past the obvious. 

Like the Song of Solomon being about both marriage and our relationship with the Christ and the church’s relationship with Christ. Or the adulterous woman in Proverbs being about adultery but also about the way our flesh entices us into any sin of indulgence. 

But the one that really struck home recently was the story of the rich young ruler. I was reading the Mark rendition (Mark 10:17-22) and it struck me that yes, the story is about clinging to riches, but it is about more than that. Consider verse 21:

Jesus looked at him and loved him. [emphasis mine] “One think you lack,” He said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 

Suddenly this story is about so much more than a man who loved his riches. It’s about Jesus’s love, about the way He sees our “lack,” as He did in this young man, and how He pushes us into situations that will make up that lack. Because He loves us. 

I see this exact thing being played out very clearly in my own life right now. I have “lacked” some discipline, especially as regards working. So the Lord put me in a situation where I could choose--be disciplined, work hard, make up that lack in my character or take it easy and throw away the opportunities He’s blessed me with. 

These past few weeks have not been easy. I’ve been writing a book I’d already written once, then trashed. I’ve also had some freelance editing projects to get done. On top of that, I’d committed at the beginning of this year to try to stay on top of the housework better. And then there are all the other, normal errands and tasks of life. He called me to a more disciplined lifestyle, to give up something I’ve clung to and enjoyed. The only other choice was to walk away from what I felt God had called me to. But reading this account in Mark has given me new vigor. The Lord hasn’t asked this thing to torture me. He’s asked it because He loves me and He sees a place where I am lacking. 

I still don’t like getting up earlier. Or less free time. Or the exhaustion that comes at the end of the day. But those are things I can endure when I know that my Jesus wants only the best for me. He wants to fill up my lack so that I can, in turn, be a more committed follower of Him. And in the end, isn’t that everything? 

My Favorite Moment of Christmas

We didn’t grow up going to church on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t that we didn’t attend church. We very much did. But Christmas Eve is my daddy’s birthday, and my mother did all she could to keep that day reserved for him instead of baby Jesus. Which was fine. He needed a celebration of his life just like all the rest of us got on our days throughout the year. 

But when each of us (four siblings) had our own families, we had the freedom to choose our own traditions with our children. And we all chose the Christmas Eve service at church. It’s come to be one of my favorite moments of the season. The carols. The festive atmosphere. But mostly, it’s the lighting of the candles I look forward to. 

When I look across the congregation, a small flame erect in each hand, I get a lump in my throat. Two things always come to mind. The first is that starlit night when Jesus was born, when a girl laid her new baby in a manger, when angel’s appeared to the shepherds, when maybe the star the magi followed shone a little bit brighter. But those flickering flames also give me pause to remember both the collective and the individual aspects of the Christian life. The candles shining in the dark auditorium remind me that together we shine His great light into the world, and yet they show the importance of each of us maintaining our own flame of faith. Guarding it. Nurturing it. Without those small, individual lights working together, the darkness creeps in. We so often forget that. We see our little flames as insignificant. We think no one will miss it if it sputters and dies. But that is not true. And I see that lived out in the candlelight of Christmas Eve. Individual, yet one. The body of Christ. 

What was your favorite moment of celebration this Christmas?