One Thing

We all know how one little thing can make a big difference – like whether you pay the bill today when it’s due or tomorrow when it’s late. So it should be no surprise to us that procedures are in place for us when we choose to follow the Lord.

I was eating with my grandparents one day, and they were telling about a time one of the kids had knocked a part out of the freezer while filling up an ice chest. This tiny part happened to direct the water flow into the dispenser. Because the part was missing, all that water was shooting into the ice tray and freezing. By the time they found it, the icebox was a solid lump. What a difficult mess to try to clean up!

The problem was not a mechanical or electrical one. The water was available for use, but because one thing was missing, all that effort was wasted as it continued to shoot pointlessly into the icebox.

Christ spoke to a rich, powerful young man once about one thing he was missing (Mark 10, Luke 18). All his life, this young man had striven for success. He kept every rule he knew! But Christ said to him, “You still lack one thing.”

Like that disconnected water hose, all the young man’s efforts were spraying out vainly. He was incomplete by the Lord’s standards.  Chambers’s book My Utmost for His Highest says, “The one thing necessary by Jesus Christ’s point of view is union with Himself and nothing in between…not to save [our] soul (only one thing saves a man—absolute reliance upon Jesus Christ)—but in order to follow Jesus.”

One day Jesus was welcomed to the home of His good friends—Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. As usual, Jesus spent time teaching those that loved Him about eternal life. Martha had much work to prepare for her guests and became frustrated. She told Jesus, “Bid Mary to come into the kitchen and help me.” Jesus’ reply demonstrates the value of the one missing element. He says, “Mary has chosen that one thing which is most important, and that will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10)

Mary’s heart was full of love for Jesus. She had chosen to sit at His feet and hear His words. Christ does not commend those who skip out on service. Neither does He condemn good works. He says that the one thing we lack is a heart of love for our God—a heart that causes us to choose Him before anything else we could desire.

It’s a difficult choice, and He often tests us by requiring from us the most precious of our possessions – not because He does not love us, for He often returns them once they are given, as He did with Abraham when called to give up his only son (Genesis 22). Other times God gives us something better. But He wants us to choose Him above every other desire.

If this sounds difficult or unpleasant to you, open God’s word the Bible. You will learn Who He is that asks this from you. As you come to know Him and love Him, you will find this is not so hard to do.