A New Playlist- Part One (Based on the book by Jacob Armstrong)

 Matthew 22:37-39:
³⁷ He replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being,^[c] and with all your mind. ³⁸  This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹  And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.^[d] 40  All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

When is the last time you did that thing of making plans to do something (whether it be a night out with friends, a family obligation, or even a commitment to lead a class at church), and then spent the 30 minutes leading up to it trying to decide if your excuse NOT to do that thing is legitimate enough to sound real? Anyone? Anyone? Is that just me? I have a feeling that it’s not just me, and I base that solely on the amount of memes that exist on the internet centering around this topic. I think this is the adult version of trying to get your voice to sound sick enough that your mom will let you stay home from school—is your excuse good enough for your friends/family/etc to let you out of what you have committed to?

The vast majority of us have been listening to the world’s playlist that tells us, “you have to do everything.” It doesn’t matter that there aren’t physically enough hours in the day to do all of those things, or that you are exhausted and haven’t slept more than 5 hours a night in weeks, or that you don’t enjoy the activity, or that your kid doesn’t enjoy the activity that you are taking them to--- it’s what expected, so we do it.

However, there is a different way to live. The new playlist, the message that God wants us to hear Him say, is “You are supposed to do two things: love God and love people.” As freeing as this message is to us, it was even more freeing to the people to whom Jesus first spoke it. The Israelites had 613 laws that they were expected to follow. 365 were things that they shouldn’t do, and 248 were things that they should do. Could you imagine trying to even remember 613 laws, much less keep them every day? 613 things to do or not do, and every time you broke one, you were considered in sin, and had to make the appropriate sacrifices to be made right with God and your community.

Jesus came and shared a much more freeing message to the people who had been living in bondage to this law. He told them that all of these laws could be summarized in to two major points— love God, and love others. If they would just focus on doing those two things-- put all of their energy in to doing just that—they would be fulfilling the law of Christ. Can you imagine the freedom that this brought the people of God? They no longer had to count their steps on the Sabbath, or worry about the fabric from which their clothes were made. They could spend their efforts loving God and loving those around them, and the rest would take care of itself.

The best thing about this simple law is that for us today, it still applies. God has called us to love Him, and to love others. That’s it. We have to do two things. Not EVERYthing. We can take off the headphones that tell us, “We have to say yes to everything.” In fact, “Saying no is often the best yes.” We can ignore the message that “We have to be all places.” God (and physics) tell us, “You can only be one place.” It’s okay for you to choose that one thing you and your family need to do is rest. And it’s okay for you to choose that one place you need to be is home. Stop trying to do it all, to be everywhere and to experience everything, to the detriment of your spiritual, emotional, and even physical health. You have two, and only two, things you HAVE to do today. Focus on loving God, and loving others, and make wise decisions that work for you and your family regarding the rest!
 

Discussion Questions:

-          Do you ever feel like you have to do it all?
 -          What’s one thing that you can cut out of your schedule immediately?