The wounds of just being human
The Greatest Commandment of all....
In the Gospel of Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus gives us the greatest commandment of loving God with all our soul, mind, and strength. This commandment is so great that it follows the Ten Commandments where God says, "You shall not have any other Gods beside me." It is the first commandment. So if the greatest commandment is loving God, why do we make excuses instead of following this commandment?
The answer lies in the words of guilt, sadness, and self-sufficiency. It is our way of being distant and hiding from God. We think that we need to clean up our act before we go back to Church. We think that we do not need Christ at this moment in time as we have everything together. However, we forget that we will never have everything totally together. In order for us to love God with every ounce of our being, God starts to drop little hints. Those hints are the things that make us slip up. We are at the point that the slips can go either way. We can either be risen up from those slips, or we can completely fall. God allows it to be our choice.
God knows that when we are vulnerable it is easier for Him to get into the place that we need to be. It is easier for us to really show Him our love. However, the problem becomes that once things are good again we start to slip back into our old habits. The solution becomes that by surrendering completely with Christ we are truly able to love God with our whole mind and soul and every ounce of our being. It is easier said than done. However, it is easy to start with just five minutes in church each day.
By taking the baby steps to truly love God, we start to see the little things as blessings from God. We start to see Christ in each person that we meet. Most importantly, we start to find true happiness because we are with God and really know Him and His love. By surrendering everything to Christ, we are able to see Him as a friend versus just someone who we know vaguely. Christ becomes more than just the stories we hear on Sunday. Christ becomes the person that we know we can turn to when things get bad and ugly.
Loving God with every ounce of our being can be a daunting task. However, by taking baby steps the bigger leaps seem more bearable. If it was not for God knocking me completely down, then there is no way that He would find me in church for at least an hour every day, if not longer. He knows that by me surrendering to Him, I am able to open up my eyes to things that I would have never opened up my eyes to before!
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About the Author
Tess Shore has dedicated her life and career to serving the underprivileged community with Shore Life Coaching. As a motivational speaker and educator, Tess specializes in coaching young adults in building better self-confidence and overcoming body issues. She is a guest speaker for Pathways to Success at her alma mater, helping juniors and seniors find their missions in life. Tess has a courageous commitment to passionately advocate for young adults dealing with issues like bullying and suicidal thoughts. Her work allows her to bring awareness to other young adult issues as well, especially those that come with transitioning into the corporate world. Tess guides her clients in building strong values and leads with zeal, inspiration, and passion. She also volunteers and serves in many capacities in other endeavors.
She can be found at http://shorelifecoaching.wordpress.com where she blogs on various issues on how to live more Christ-like. In her spare time, Tess can be found running and having a zest for life.
