If I hesitate to obey God, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely myself.
Oswald Chambers
For some reason, I always had a hard time relating to the Gospel for today – until I read this line above the other day. Jesus tells us that if we do not hate our father and our mother and our brothers and sisters, our spouse, our children and even our own life, we cannot be His disciple.
Seems pretty harsh. Isn’t Jesus and Christianity all about love? Love of each other? Then what can He possibly mean? I got it from a conceptual point of view, that yes, we can’t put anything before God, even those we love. But for whatever reason, after having read the quote above, it hits home. I feel it. It got me thinking…
If we put those we love, including ourselves on a level playing field with God, we will not obey Him.
God must take precedence. Above everything. Because without Him, we have nothing. None of this exists.
This makes me think of an experience I’ve had a few years ago. I was climbing the corporate ladder. I wanted to make more money, have more responsibility, be the star. I preached teamwork, but often I was looking out for number one, myself, because that was the world I was in. I didn’t throw people under the bus by any means, and I always strived to do my best and be a man of character and integrity, doing the right thing, and for the most part I did. But for a long time it was self -serving.
I’ll never forget one company meeting we had when a coworker was giving a presentation, and his opening slide was a photoshopped image of him fanning a stack of cash in his hand, saying how it is our ultimate goal to make money, achieve the maximum profit because that ultimately is what it is all about. It is the name of the game.
This was the beginning of a significant change for me. I saw that image and it downright disgusted me. I asked myself, “is this what I am about? Is this my ultimate goal?” It was shocking.
Fast forward seven years. I am two years into a job with a company that has given me meaning. No, not just a job that provides for my family and gives me fulfilling work, but it is a job with a company that puts Christ first, our customers second, then the team and finally ourselves, and where we truly see servant leadership in action. Money, profits, and success come along with it, but in its proper place and priority.
For so many years, I had things out of whack. My priorities were upside down.
But that day in 2012 led to a transformation, a yearning for something better. Something more.
I realized that something was not right. Things were out of place. And it wasn’t just in my career. It transcended into my personal life, and most definitely my spiritual life.
I was putting myself and my desires before Christ. I was placing barriers before Him, and often that included my own family. My attachments to those I love I was placing before God. This is what Jesus warns us against, that we can even put something that is ordinarily beautiful and loving and in the wrong context and priority can become corrupt and idolistic.
But what I have learned in recent years in this regard is a true appreciation for Christ and what he has blessed us with, and that everything centers on Christ – our marriages, our families, our work environments, all our relationships, our talents and abilities – everything, in the glory of Christ.
God is in and throughout everything. And it is because of Him that there is what there is, and it is because of Him that everything has meaning.
And when we place Him first – all things come into balance.
