Anticipating YHWH
Part 2
By David
Drury
If you have yet to read Part 1 click this
My
son turned 5-years old this past summer.
For years he would wake up and go down stairs and catatonically view PBS
children’s shows for hours in his pajamas.
Now his morning looks much different.
I’ll recount for you one strange morning: my wife and I rolled over in bed one morning at
6:00 AM because of a stirring on her side of the bed. We opened our eyes to our already fully
dressed 5-year old staring at us!
This
alone was a near-miracle in our home.
Many times we’ve spent in excess of 60 minutes trying to get him dressed
for the day. Sometimes once we’ve said the phrase “Max, go and put on your
pants right now, we need to leave” one hundred times we give up. One time my wife actually called me the other
day 25 minutes before Church the other day and said, “Just so you know and
aren’t surprised, Max may show up at church today in his pajamas.” Since there was a plan to bring all the kids
up on the stage that day for a story I got him on the phone and pleaded with
him to put on his clothes: “When we die will inherit all of our assets and your
sisters will get nothing if you simply put on your clothes.”
The
reason Max miraculously began getting up before the Sun, picking out his
clothes and putting them all on was simple: he had a new best friend named
Ryan. When my wife rolled over that day
and saw our fully clothed 5-year-old he said, “Can I go out and play with
Ryan.” We were sure that Ryan had not
come to the door to ask Max to come outside and play flashlight tag—so we said,
“Go downstairs and wait until the little hand is on the 8 and the big hand on
the 12 and then you can see if Ryan is up and ready to play with you.” And for months at a time when the weather was
nice the last 6 months we’ve had to constantly hear about how Max wants to go
play with Ryan, or we’ve been looking for him because he’s out too late playing
with Ryan, or we get to hear all of the fun things he and Ryan did together
that day. Max loves to hang out with
Ryan—a little best friend in the making.
A FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD
What
would it be like if I had a friendship with God that looked more like Max’s
friendship with Ryan.
What if I overcame all of my struggles outlined in “part one” by having
that kind of friendship with God? What
if my connection with God became more daily
because I wanted it to be—not because a devotional book told me to. What if I got
over my pet peeves about talking of Jesus like a boyfriend and took him at His
own words in John 15: “I no longer call you servants but friends.” I’ve always been at ease being His
servant. What if I was more at ease
being his friend? What if I served him
because He was my friend in fact? What
if I became emotionally connected to God for the same reason I’m emotionally
connected to my friends: because we have a history, because of what He’s done
for me, because of what it would be like without Him and because of our future
dreams for each other?
IT’S ALL ABOUT ANTICIPATION
There’s
a key element in Max’s friendship with Ryan that I want to cultivate in my
spiritual walk: anticipation. The reason
he got up and put all his clothes on is the anticipation of having a great time
riding bikes or playing videogames. It
was so good the last time they hung out that as soon as he woke up he wanted to
be together again. In fact, it was so
good it got him up 90 minutes early! I
want that with God. I don’t want to get
up in the morning and read devotions because my alarm clock and Microsoft
Outlook told me to. I want to actually
wake up thinking about it and do it because I want to. Now, I know that kind of emotion can’t be
expected every day—we can’t be driven only my emotions… we have to have
commitment. But you see, my problem is
not over-emotionalism… it’s over-commitment. I do things more because I should and need
to, and less because I want to. So for
me there’s a key anticipation motivation.
I want to walk with God as a friend.
LIVING OUT THE SHEMA
I’m
beginning to wonder if this is what it means to live out the famous “Shema”
which was quoted daily by the Jews (including Jesus) and forms the foundational
commandment and God-gravity for the Jewish spirit. Here it is: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our
God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today
are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when
you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when
you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your
foreheads.” Deuteronomy 6:4-8. Getting to this place of constantly looking
to God or YHWH seems to be
all about anticipation. Our hearts, soul
and strength should be mobilized in His direction. We should teach His way of life to our
kids. We should be talking about it at
home and when we drive to a meeting.
When I go to bed God should be on my mind. When I get up a prayer should come from my
lips. Others should see me and know that
I am identified with Christ somehow.
Less because of my corny Jesus-evangelism T-Shirt and more because of
the way I live my life. I need to
cultivate in my spirit a sense of anticipating YHWH… of wanting to be with him
even more than my son wants to go outside and play with his buddy Ryan. Then the rest will fall into place.
_________
© 2006 by David Drury
Publishing information:
To inquire about publishing this or
other copyrighted articles and columns
in your publication simply contact
David Drury at [email protected]
All rights reserved
David Drury Bio