Proverbs 3:5a
“THE HOODED SWEATSHIRT”
As the clock ticked down, speeding toward the inevitable, excruciating end of the game, and unfortunately the end of the season, I saw out of the corner of my eye a young boy in a maroon hooded sweatshirt. His hood was pulled up over his head, hands covering his face, sobbing almost uncontrollably. His paternal grandfather, who had been seated next to him, wrapped his arm around the young boy and attempted to console him to no immediate avail. His maternal grandmother, seated one row above him, moved into the aisle and also attempted to cheer the boy up. He would have none of it.
As I watched, I was saddened and my heart ached for the youngster. After all, I knew the young boy and his family personally. His mother and father, the head coach of the defeated team, were friends of mine. The young boy was one of my campers. But in addition to being saddened, I was in a strange way heartened. I know, I know, it sounds strange that one would be heartened by the uncontrollable tears of an 11 year old boy, but in the poignant sadness of the moment, I tried to look beyond the emotion, to the source of the sobs, the motive for the tears. What I saw when I gazed beyond the slumped shoulders, beyond the heaving sobs, beyond the red face, beyond the tears flowing like rivers down his checks, was a complete and total investment of the heart. The boy loved his daddy…period. Beyond anything else, the boy was hurting…not for his daddy, but with and because of his daddy. He loved his daddy with all of his heart.
Yesterday we talked about the fact that all of us want to make something Lord in our lives, and we talked about the fact that anytime something other than Christ becomes Lord, life is out of balance, incomplete. In today’s 5 words of scripture, Solomon gives us the clue as to “how” we are to make Jesus Lord, how we are to avoid the pain, insecurity, and emptiness that comes from making someone or something else Lord of our lives. Simply and wisely put, as only Solomon can do, we are to trust in Him “WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART.” Now that is very easily said and to be very frank often overlooked, but, in reality, the reality of your personal day-to-day existence, just exactly what does it mean...“with all of your heart?” Years and years ago, I heard a wonderful speaker by the name of Roy Fish talk about this subject by comparing total and complete dedication of our heart to different rooms of our heart, each room being a different interest in our lives. As he made his way through the various rooms of our heart, he explained how some of us had no trouble giving this room or that room to God, no problem trusting him completely with this area or that area of our lives, but that the “trick,” the real challenge, the sometimes painful difficulty, was to trust God with all of the rooms of our heart, with all of the areas of our lives. Trust is not trust if it is not given completely. Jesus is not Lord if every part of our life is not dedicated first to Him.
I am an intense person, with intense passions, intense loyalties, and intense pride. These are all characteristics that were given to me by God, in order to make me who I am…in Him. In the world’s eyes, I can use the gifts given to me by God to glorify me or to glorify God. Only, if I am willing to give him every area of my life, every area of my heart, every passion of my soul, then will Jesus be my Lord. When I am not willing to do so, He is not. Think about the areas of your own heart. Do you give Him your whole heart in your family life but not in your scholastic pursuits? Are you willing to trust Him with the “rec room” of your heart but not the “bedroom” of your heart? Are you fully dedicated to Christ in the “attic” and the “basement,” the parts of your lives that are inconsequential to daily living, but fully dedicated to something else? How about the “kitchen” and “living room” of your heart? Do you dedicate your “chapel” to God, but your “work room” to your own slovenly, lazy ways?
Let’s be honest, none of us is fully dedicated to God at every moment of our lives…none of us. However, only when we are able to achieve complete dedication of our heart to Jesus as Lord, as a mindset and a heart set, do our daily circumstances become irrelevant, our daily comfort levels become irrelevant, the continuing praises of others become irrelevant, and success in the world’s eyes becomes irrelevant. Only when our entire being is committed to the direction, the comfort, the strength, and the purposes of Jesus as Lord are we able to achieve all that God has planned for us to achieve.
This summer you have an incredible opportunity to influence and impact children for the here and now (and for eternity as well), but you also have an incredible opportunity to learn what it means to trust Jesus with all of your heart.
The little boy in the hooded sweatshirt walked toward the bus arm in arm with his Dad. The hood was pulled down off his head, the eyes, though still red, were devoid of tears and the sobbing had stopped. In the minutes since the game had ended he had reconnected with his father and his father had assured him that everything would, in fact, be o.k….and that, that alone was enough, because you see, the little boy trusted his father “WITH ALL OF HIS HEART.” See you this summer Will T.
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