"What About Him?"

Growing up in a house with 8 siblings is no joke, especially when you only have one bathroom! You have someone brushing their teeth, on the toilet & in the shower at the same time. Private space, what's that? You had to be quick on the draw. If you wanted extra fried chicken, you had to practically swallow whole the piece mamma put on your plate within 10 seconds to make sure you got another piece because your older brothers had bigger mouths & bigger stomachs! Or, if by some supernatural work of God there was any left over (praise God for those days of abundance!) then you would have to 'accidently' wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom & 'accidently' pass by the refrigerator so you could 'accidently' sneak a midnight fried chicken snack... The joys of a hecka big family.

Wrestling was a normal part of our daily routine. Competition many times fueled the performance fire. Who would get the most hits when we played baseball? Who would win the belt in wrestling? Who would finish their food first so they could eat the most? And then breaking windows from playing baseball in the front yard after mamma already said, "You have a huge school across the street play over there!" was always pretty, ummmm, scarily exciting? It was always pretty humorous to get in trouble together because you didn't quite know what was going to happen. It was kinda like an adventure, an adventure with a giant leather snake (belt) rying to attack you while you tried to fight (more like smoothe talk) your way out of it... But, one thing was pretty normal. When we would get in trouble or when it came time to do chores & obey one of our parents commnds we would ask, "What about him? What about them? Are you going to do something to them too? I wasn't the only one... Do they have to do it too? Am I the only one?"

I was taken back to this when reading John 21. Jesus asked Peter three times if Peter loved (agapeo) Him. And three times Peter responded, "Yes Lord, you know I love (phileo) you." After this Jesus explains to Peter the type of love that He was speaking about, the agapeo love, the God-kind of love that lays down its life for another. Up until this time the love that Peter knew, understood & demonstrated was an affection love, brotherly love, a love that is strongly conditional... Jesus tells Peter that when Peter gets older he was going to lay down his life for Jesus. Jesus speaks to Peter's seemingly blantant area of lack & declares that it will lack no more. This is so powerful because just days before Peter, out of fear - which is rooted in self-preservation, denied Jesus three times. Peter knew that to follow Jesus would ensure his fate to be like the One he followed, a life of sacrifice, death to self, losing control of one's future, full submission... But now, Jesus declared that Peter would live that type of life, motivated by the same thing Jesus was motivated by, love - unconditional love, the God-kind of love.

You see, many of us don't think we could love the way God loves. We think to live a life that is fully surrendered, fully yielded & fully sacrificial is reserved only for a select few of God's super 'saints.' "Send the pastor to love the broken God, he/she is more qualified & spiritual..." The truth is that we have believed a lie. We have been deceived into believing that our ability to love is based on something that we can conjure up. We have bought into the lie that we are personally responsible for protecting our life, dreams & future, but in reality we have subitted to fear, self-preservation! The truth is that, "your life is not your own, you been bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6). The truth is that you have been "crucificed with Christ" (Gal. 2:20), your life is not your own & the life you live you live by faith in the Son of God who love you & gave Himself for you. The truth is that the God-kind of love has been graciously & powerfully given to you. "But hope does not disappoint us because God has pour out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom He has given to us" (Romans 5:5). The truth is you have His love in your heart in ever increasing measure. The questions are, "Have you allowed it to lay hold of you? Have you embraced it? Are you going to steward that love & give it away to others?" It's not a matter of having it or not, it's a matter of stewarding it...

Jesus gave Peter the Holy Spirit & knew that when the time came for Peter to lay down his life that Peter had what was in him to do it...Yet Peter asks a question about John, a question that me & my brother's used to ask about each other, "What about him?" Jesus simply responds by saying, "What is that you? You must follow me..."

So often we compare ourselves with our brothers. We read & hear the commands that Jesus is giving us, but we are constantly questioning, "What about him? What about her? What about that leader or that church?" We are asking Jesus why certain people are getting away with things & others are not. We are asking why certain people are getting blessed & we are not. We are comparing how powerful some people's or churches' ministries are & how ours or others are not. While all the time Jesus is saying to us and our churches, "What is that to you? You must follow me."

We have our eyes fixed on the "What about him & her?" and we lose sight of following Jesus. He moves to the left or the right & we don't see it because we are looking back or to the side asking, "What about him?" I'm not speaking of a self-centered, individualistic walk with Jesus, but I'm taking about 'fixing our eyes on Jesus the author & finisher of our faith,' not fixing our eyes on what others are or are not doing. When your eyes are fixed on the Groom, you cannot help but gain His heart & love for His Bride.

Competativeness may help enhance performance at times, but it is never the means of approval or acceptance. We are so busy comparing ourselves & competing, weighing ourselves by the standards of others that we lost sight of the true standard for love, sonship & discipleship. The true standard is Jesus...

When I would ask my dad, "What about them?" he would look at me with all the love in his heart & say, "Son, you must do what I tell you,don't worry about what I have for them. You need to do what I'm telling you to do..." It's time to stop comparing & stop competing. Comparing & competing keep us from moving forward together. You are not to weigh how spiritual you are by how long you pray in comparison to someone else, or how much you read in comparison to someone else. Your level of spirituality is not determined by your title, position, gifts or lack of. Your level of spiritual is not determined by how big your ministry is, how many gifts of the Spirit you possess or by how fruitful you think you are. You are who God's word says you are, you have what God's word says you have & you are commanded to follow how Jesus commands you to follow. Jesus is the standard & He has given you all He has through His Spirit. How are you stewarding it?

It's time to fix our eyes on Jesus. It's time for the Church to move forward with a heart that is motivated by the God-kind of love that is ours through the Holy Spirit... You see, when my dad would give us tasks to steward he would many times give them to us individually, but they would all tie in together. He would often tell one to clean the bathroom, one the living room, one the kitchen, & one the hallways. We may not have known exactly what the others were doing, but we had to trust that our father saw the big picture & knew what he was doing. Each position was just as necessary for the house to be cared for, each son & responsibility had just as much value to the father... We had to move away from, "What about him or her?" to following with a heart filled with a determinatin to steward with the God-kind of love...