the greatest commandment...

easy right? love the lord. first. foremost. above all else. with all your heart soul mind and strength. everybody knows it. but how many actually do it?

this has been on my heart lately. and when i thought about it i thought man i have to love the lord more than i love jelly beans. more than i love law and order. more than i love my friends. more than i love my family. and let me tell you i loveeee my family. so for a while i wrestled with that. how could i love my family any less? i can't. not even if i tried. and why would god call me to do that? i'm sure reading this you already know the answer. but my own closed mind was kind of upset by being called to this.

ok so after praying about it everything clicked. i don't have to love anything on earth less. i just have to love the lord more. and that is a biiiig love. but it's one that i'm growing into. one that flourishes every single day as the lord reveals more of himself to me. one that becomes easier and easier as i spend time with him. i am not forced to love the lord. i am called to it yes. but how could i not love someone with everything i have when he does the same to me?

i am falling in love with the lord. madly, hopelessly, irrevocably in love with the god of the universe. and let me tell you there is no love like it. so much so that literally the only thing i pray about for myself is that i would grow closer to him. every day. i read the book crazy love by francis chan a few months ago and while there was some seriously brilliant stuff in there, one thing stuck out more than the rest. he talked about how people pray things like safety before going on a family trip. when instead we should be praying the we would grow closer to the lord at any cost. "god, kill my whole family if it will bring me closer to you." now that's way literal. and not praying that god would kill my family of course. but my family means more to me than anything on earth. but how great would it be to get to a place in my relationship with the lord that i would give them up if it meant drawing nearer to him?

i don't think i'm there yet. and trust me i loveeee my family. i'm not trying to love them any less. just love the lord more. with everything i have. more than anything on this earth. because he loved me first. because he is good. because there is no other way to truly live. and the list goes on.