His spikes dug into the ice, the long strides flexing every leg muscle. He lunged forward in a dive and landed on his skeleton sled. The olympic crowd yelled and waved their flags in support. The world record time placed him on the center podium, gold medal dangling from his neck. The national anthem echoed through the stadium, but stuttered into some sort of distorted electronic tone. Clay's eyes finally opened when his ears recognized the emergency tones blaring in the night. He found himself lying on his stomach like he was on the skeleton sled, arms under his pillow. He could not push himself up because his arms were asleep! He threw his body sideways, whipping his dead arms like short sections of rope.He tried everything in his power to bring life to his arms, to no avail. He ended up hitting the garage door opener button with his right big toe and climbed on the truck, the tingling pain diffusing slowly towards his fingers."Lord, help me. I went from the gold medal to arms like cold metal in less than a minute," Clay winced.Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22: 37-38) Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for us. In return He wants us to totally sell out to loving Him. He calls us to come close to Him and surrender every part of our lives to His Lordship. If there is something we are doing that detracts from this love relationship He longs for, He will definitely let us know about it. This relationship is the single most important thing for the Christian walk. We cannot obtain this closeness by our own actions, but only by accepting the gift of grace and mercy from Christ himself, thus bridging the gap of sin that separates us from God. "Everything in your Christian life, everything about knowing Him and experiencing Him, everything about knowing His will, depends on the quality of your love relationship to God." (Blackaby)There is nothing greater than His calling us to be in a loving relationship with Him. The pursuit of money, status, fame, or position fades in comparison. By striving to maintain this relationship daily, we can participate in constant fellowship with God. This is His will- our main purpose in life.Sure, we are not worthy of such a calling, but for some reason God chooses to include us in doing His work and to reveal His purposes. "To firmly anchor the experiencing of God and knowing His will, you must be absolutely convinced of God's love for you." (Blackaby)We are talking about a real, personal, and practical relationship where we see God impacting our lives daily in our speech, attitudes, and actions. We can thank God that He takes the initiative to choose us to further advance His kingdom. Thank you, Lord. To God be the glory.Next week: Unit 4: Love and God's Invitation.
