In Mark 12:29, Jesus responds to a man who has just asked what the most important commandment is by saying "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."
I think the fact that no person has ever been able to keep these two commandments is proof that God is real, because it's definitely proof that the devil is real. How hard can it be to score a 100% on a two problem test?
Yet, every time I put my own desires before God's desires, I get the first one wrong. Every time I use my gifts for selfish gain, I get it wrong again.
Every time I lie, or as I like to call it, "a little fib" to get something I want, I get #2 wrong. Every time I walk passed someone in need, wrong again. Every time my gain is more important than there's... wrong again.
Some really amazing, really devoted, really disciplined people have been able to get really close to living this out perfectly, but they didn't. It's impossible.
We can strive for it as much as we want. We can make it our full time job to seek after perfecting it, but we would still fall short. That's the blessing of Jesus though. Even when we fall short, He's available to stretch out His hand and pull us to the finish line. He fills the gap for us. He sees us coming up short and jumps into our mess in order to help us get to the Promised Land. We really just need to grab His hand - yet some people don't. Some people choose to live as if His hand isn't there for them. Some people choose to see His hand but decide they don't want to bridge the gap, or that they can do it on their own. They can't. I can't. You can't. Tom Brady can't. Michael Jordan can't. Billy Graham can't. Mother Theresa couldn't. Really great people... still couldn't do it.
All I want to say is TAKE HIS HAND.
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