“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30 ESV).”
This morning, as I did my quiet time, I was especially drawn to this verse. I prayed the verse over my family members, for my daughter, my husband, and my parents. I prayed they would love the Lord with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength. Eyes closed and heart lifted toward the heavens, I asked God for them to be fully engaged with His Spirit. Then I turned toward my own internal Spirit. Am I loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength?
As a deep thinker, I often engage first with my mind. I study. I ponder. I learn. But I need to feel. What would it be like to just let God wrap His arms around me? To just lay myself in his lap and say, “Father, I love you. Spend time with me.” No need to go deep – just enjoy His company. To know He enjoys mine. After all, this is where it all begins – love, that is. Simple time spent – moments enjoyed.
But I feel like my heart and mind are hard to distinguish from one another. Even in my husband’s embrace, my mind is moving. I’m relishing in the moment, yes. But I’m also connecting them to all the moments past. Reliving struggles and joys and triumphs. Every hug is filled with the reflection of the last twelve years and the anticipation of the next forty. My mind never stops moving.
So, can I just let my soul rest in God without my mind engaged – churning through the Bible trying to find out more and more about who He is, how He works, and what He wants from me? But that’s just it – what He wants from me… He craves my heart and soul as well as my mind and strength. My rest, my trust, my presence. He wants me to let Him surround me with warmth, comfort, and simplicity. So, I will try.
I will turn on the music that allows my mind to focus on His wonders. I will read the Psalm that reminds me that I can simply “lie down in green pastures (Psalm 23:2b ESV)” in His presence. Listen for the rustle of the wind, feel the breeze, feel the grass, see the azure sky dotted with cotton ball clouds, smell the earth all around me and be content in the awe of the presence of my Creator.
Then my mind can re-engage, and I’ll go back to His Book to wonder, to learn, to grow. I will find meaning there, and it will enrich my days. I’ll share my knowledge and encourage others. I’ll know God more fully, so that when I lay in the grass, I can love Him more deeply.
And then, when He nudges me, I can love Him with my strength. When I love my family, I love Him. When I do my work with integrity, I love Him. When I care for His creatures, I love Him. When I help someone get a can from a high shelf at the grocery store, I love Him.
Finally, I love Him with my words. The words that fall from my ever-engaged mind. The words that form from my connection to Him. The words on the page represent all of my strength. Those words cannot come, though, if I do not love with my heart, soul, and mind from the beginning.
And what about you? Are you loving God with your whole self, or is something missing from your relationship with the Creator? What would it look like for you to love Him with your whole heart? Your whole mind? And all your strength?
Leave a Reply