Well, this is my new rant. What I have learned in the past months is that to love is to work. It's not convenient. It doesn't always feel good. And at times the big bright exit sign seems to be flashing in neon lights. But love says that quitting isn't an option because for whatever reason, doing something I hate for someone I love is worth it.
Let's get real. Who really enjoys reading Leviticus? I'm attempting for the first time to read the Bible all the way through within this year. I was doing what I considered a great job until I reached the point that I had to read Leviticus. (It goes out of order, so really it was like 4 months into the process). Let me tell you, Leviticus is NOT a fun book to read. Every night when I sat down to read I found myself repenting that I just couldn't get myself to care. I read with heavy eyes, grudging through each new way to kill and eat some animal to atone for this or that sin, and I must say, I found myself praying that God would give me supernatural reading abilities so I could get through it faster. But you know what? It wasn't for nothing. Though I have yet to have a deep conversation with anyone on the subject of Leviticus, I realized during the week it took me to read it that my love for the Lord was growing. The inspiring, uplifting, challenging verses are great, and they have got me through a lot of stuff, but for whatever reason, the fact that I was reading something so utterly uninteresting to me because I said I would changed my perspective on so many things. You see, relationships are not easy. I can't imagine my mother ever saying that she loved changing diapers so much that every time she did it just lit a little fire in her soul. No, I happen to know my mother does not really enjoy changing diapers, but she did it because she loved me, and for whatever reason, she loves me more because of the innumerable diapers she changed in my babyhood. That, my friends, it what makes love grow.
It's the gross things, the wiping of the snot, the diaper cleaning, the chores, the errands, the nasty that helps love grow. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying reading the Bible, praying, fasting, and such is nasty, but I must admit, sometimes it's just not desirable. I mean, we live in the world of Netflix, Facebook, Twitter and the like, and all these things scream CONSUME, while the Lord says, SACRIFICE.
So no matter how much you hate it or how "little time" you have, read your Bible. Grudge your way through Leviticus, and talk to God during the day, more than just meal times. Sacrifice something. It SUCKS, let me tell you, but that's what makes that "passionate relationship" with your Savior more than just a book full of inspiring quotes and a cool Jesus t-shirt. It makes it real. You have to have some religion to have a relationship. You have to have a relationship for the religion to be worth it. So don't go all one way or all the other. The check list wont get you to heaven. In fact you may make it to the pearly gates with all your checks in the boxes just for the Lord of the Universe to say "I never knew you." You may get there, expecting your WWJD bracelet and your "Jesus is my homeboy" shirt to be enough to give you a pass to the streets of gold, and Jesus will just look at you and shake his head, tears in his eyes, sad that for all that time and all your best intentions, you missed it.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me'.
John 12:25
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"Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
