When Did Love Become Unconsuming?

I was driving to work this morning, and a song came on the radio that got my attention.  (The song is called “You Can Have Me,” performed by the band Sidewalk Prophets).  I had heard this song a number of times, but for whatever reason, I never really listened.  Here’s the first verse:

If I saw You on the street
And You said come and follow me
But I had to give up everything
All I once held dear and all of my dreams

Would I love You enough to let go?
Or would my love run dry
When You asked for my life

I have to admit, the thought stopped me cold.  We ask ourselves that question in various ways at various times of our lives, but most of the time, it’s just a hypothetical question.  There’s no real action that we take.  We comfort ourselves, saying, “Of course, I’d follow Jesus.  I go to church, right?”  But deep down, we have this nagging thought – this still, small voice inside, asking if we’d really do it.  Do we really have the love, the passion, the selflessness to drop everything and follow the call of our God?

The chorus of the song really puts the question in a spectacular way.  It says, When did love become unmoving?  When did love become unconsuming? Those questions really speak to me.  How much passion do I really have for God; for the things of God; for His kingdom?  If I say I love Him, then do I have the all-consuming passion that should be a natural by-product?  Am I truly moved by God, by Jesus, by the cross…

Passion is an interesting topic to me.  I like to see how passion manifests in people.  Some people are passionate about sports.  You can see it in how they talk about it constantly, how they invest their time and energy into watching it.  You can especially see it when something exciting happens in the game – the screaming, the clapping, the high-fives…  Other people are passionate about their computers.  Mac people.  Windows people.  It turns them into evangelists – I’m pretty sure I’ve heard more people sharing the good news of Macintosh than…  well, you get the point.  Whatever we’re passionate about, we talk about.  We get excited about.  We debate about it.  We become consumed with it.  We are moved by it.

We have to ask ourselves, “Are we consumed with God?  Are we truly moved by the cross?  When we think of all He has done for us, are we floored with gratefulness?  When we look at creation all around us, does it still stop us in our tracks – do we have any response at all?  Or have we become numb; has our walk with God become so rote and our days so packed with things that ultimately don’t really matter that we no longer feel anything.

I think it’s pretty clear that God wants us to love Him.  And I think it’s pretty clear that He doesn’t like the “half-hearted” approach.  He wants us to give Him our very best, no matter what we are doing.  When we serve, he wants us to do it wholeheartedly.  When we give, He wants us to do it cheerfully.  And when we worship, He wants us to do it passionately.  When we sing, He wants the words we say to be real, authentic, and heartfelt.  When we pray, He wants our focus; our attention.

It’s easy to slide by on all of this.  It’s easy to go through the motions when we have to, but deep down not feel anything.  It’s easy to go to church every couple of weeks and feel like we’re doing our part.  It’s easy to bow our heads when a prayer is being said, but our mind wanders to everything else.

Here are the questions I’m asking myself – the questions that I feel like God has put on my heart – in response to all of this.

• Am I truly passionate about God?  How does this look in my life?  How does it manifest?
• What areas am I “sliding by” – or just “going through the motions” in my relationship with Christ?
• What am I willing to give up to follow Christ?  How can I make that question more than hypothetical?
• What does it mean to serve, give, and worship wholeheartedly?  Am I doing these things as God wants?

It’s my hope and my prayer for you and I that we can answer these questions authentically, and that God will direct us toward the things that we are getting right, as well as work on the areas that we need some work.  Think about a world where everyone is a little more consumed with Christ; where we respond a little more by being truly moved when we see His works and the works that He is doing in us and with us and through us.  I think it’s worth a little effort on our parts.  Don’t you?

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