“He gave it all for me, so I’m going to try to give my all for him.”
You would be wrong to assume that he teenage girl was talking about giving her all for some guy that she had a crush on. That is the way it is now days though. Whenever you speak of giving your whole heart, it is assumed that you are speaking about some sort of romantic, boyfriend or girlfriend swooning. And, if you were to sing about it, there would be no doubt that the tune would be some sort of pop, love ballad.
The teen was not like the others around her though. She was an enigma to her classmates. She did not easily swoon over guys. She did not write a boyfriend’s name over and over again in her notebook with swirls and hearts decorating the letters of love.
Instead, if she were to sing a ballad of giving her heart fully, it would be a hymn sung to Jesus. In fact, as she walked down the halls of the school, it was not uncommon to hear her humming these hymns as she walked along.
“He gave it all for me, so I’m going to try to give my all for him.” The words tumbling out of her mouth were about Jesus, and the words were just as heart-felt as if they were about a boyfriend.
They might as well have been about a boyfriend, because her parents treated the words in a similar way. The teen’s parents were not religious in any sense of the word, and they honestly believed that religion was the source of most evil throughout the world.
Look at the terrorism in the world. Religion.
Look at intolerance in the world. Religion.
Look at those who appear to be self-righteous jerks. Religion.
To hear their daughter speak glowingly and lovingly about her savior was enough to make them want to hurl. Where did she come up with this stuff anyway?
“You cannot leave this house to go to that stuck up, institution called the church,” they warned her multiple times. But, just as many times, she snuck out the house and went to church anyway, as if Jesus was the motorcycle riding boyfriend that steals away the innocent girl.
“He gave it all for me on the cross, so I’m going to try to give my all for him.” She truly believed that, so she gave her all as best as she could.
She was a modern day Mary who would sit at Jesus’ feet and cling to his every word while her sister, Martha, would grumble about taking care of the important matters in life, housework, all alone once again.
She was a modern day Mary who was willing to give it all by anointing Jesus’ feet with perfume that was worth close to an entire year’s worth of wages. Yes, Jesus was that important to her.
She loved Jesus so much that she would have happily joined Mary in anointing Jesus’ feet with her hair. She desired to give her whole life to Jesus and his ministry of loving the neighbor. Nothing would be held back. Nothing would be too sacred to give to Jesus.
There is always a critic in the crowd though. The teen’s main critics were her parents who treated her faith like an elementary school romantic relationship.
Mary’s main critic was Judas. How dare she waste a year’s worth of resources on one person, Judas questioned. How dare she use all that perfume on a man’s feet rather than doing some good with it; like helping the poor!
Forget the fact that Judas probably just wanted the money for himself, people who devote their lives to Jesus and his mission will find themselves on the receiving end of criticism and facing roadblocks every time.
A suburban church was once criticized when they added a large “life” center onto their church. It was an extension added onto the church to support their growing ministries.
“How dare they waste money in such a way! Can they not look around their neighborhood and see the homeless on the streets just outside of their doors?”
It is a common charge leveled against a church: wasting money on walls rather than people.
Recently, a new charge was leveled again the same church by the same neighbors. The church decided that the best way to use their new “life” center would be to offer emergency housing and food to the poor in the surrounding community. In other words, they decided that since Jesus had given his all, they would try to give their all back to Jesus and Jesus’ cause to help the poor and beaten down.
This decision had the unintended consequence of creating a highway of homeless people past local businesses in order to get to the church and the assistance that it was providing.
The same people who criticized the church and their extravagant spending started floating around a petition to outlaw providing assistance to the poor within the city limits.
Dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t.
It does not matter, because like the teenage girl who slipped out of the house just to go worship Jesus despite the consequences, they plan to continue to try to give their all back to Jesus and his ministry of love, no matter what the city ordinances become.
Will the church get fined? Probably.
Will the girl get grounded, again? Probably.
Was Mary chastised? Of course.
But, when someone loves you more than the world, you will do the most foolish of things to show them that you love them back. You will do foolish things like walking up to a cross only to be nailed upon it. You will do foolish things like die on a cross just so that those you love might know just how much you love them and to what extent you are willing to go for them.
It is foolish. It is not the way of the world. But, the way of the world rarely considers selfless love as a value.
It is the way of Jesus though. It is the way of self-less love. And, it is the sort of intimate love that will cause you to sing a ballad of love to the one who first loved you.
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