I begin this week with a very narrow but very complex question.
What does God want……..from mankind……from me?
This post obviously begins with the assumption that God, the creator, exists. If you don’t believe in a creator…..if you believe it’s all a big series of accidents…. then relax, you can do as you please…….there are no overarching rules……..there are no expectations…….there is no reward and there is no punishment……..as long as you are right. But, the probabilities are working against you.
God went to a lot of trouble to create the 200 billion trillion stars in the universe. He went to a lot of trouble to design the 200 billion chemical bonds that make up your and my genome…..all of it exquisitely tuned, interconnected, and coordinated to make life possible. But why? He must have had a purpose in mind. What could God have hoped to get out of all of this effort?
The answer, I believe, is found in our very nature. It is there because we bear the fingerprints of our creator. It is written on our hearts. It is written on our hearts because it is important to God. And, as it turns out, the most important desire of our hearts is exactly the same as the most important desire of God’s heart.
Relationship.
Ask any adult, “what is the one thing that you have lost in your lifetime that you regret the most?”
Ask any adult, “name one thing that you would give up everything else for?”
The most common answer by far will be a relationship.
The Bible underscores this. Over and over again, the question comes up. “What does God expect of me?………What does God require of me?”
The Bible gives us a lot of guidelines; but, there is only one thing that is absolutely required. There is only one non-negotiable prerequisite.
Relationship.
Relationship can be thought of as the distance between you and God. You can almost measure it. You can compare this distance on a day to day or a year to year basis. You can compare it over time for yourself. You can compare it over time for our culture as a whole.
And this raises the central question:
How close are you to God today? As a nation, how close are we to God today?
Are you closer……are we closer…… today than yesterday……are we closer……this year than last year?
I would caution that, as a culture, our distance from God is growing. My ability to heal that gap……for the culture as a whole……..is limited. But, the distance between me individually and God is completely in my hands. The distance between my family and God is also in my hands. The greatest gift that I can give to my family is to grow our relationship, to diminish the distance between us and God.
This is critical……because, in the end, the quality of your life, will be judged by that one measurement. When you die and move on to phase two of your existence, that measurement is the only data point that will matter.
Anything that you do that increases that distance is failure. Anything that you do that doesn’t affect that distance is irrelevant. Anything you do that draws you closer to God, is progress.
So, consider the metrics that you use to assess your life:
Your net worth
The value of your house
The success of your children
Your position at work
The win/loss ratio for your favorite sports team
The distance between you and God
Only one of these has any lasting significance.
There are two corrolaries that flow from this.
Your distance metric can be improved….right now.
The guy with the little cardboard sign on the exit ramp could have a better distance metric than yours.
Something to ponder.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.
Jesus, John 14:6-7, ESV
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Jesus, Matthew 7:21-23, ESV
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:10-13, ESV