one thing
Sometimes when I find myself in a dry and barren season in my life, I feel drawn to God’s purpose of strengthening my frame or building my character. Of all the reasons available for me to comprehend why I might be experiencing frustration, weariness, overwhelming, and sometimes oppressive thoughts and emotions, character tugs at my heart, and I remember the time I heard him say, “I’m not through with you yet.” God is interested in our heart-character so that He can fill us with more of Himself. Our container or heart-character, is shown by the choices we make day in and day out, whether anyone is looking or not, and whether we will receive a reward or not. When we look it as a series of choices we make, we can take this large weighty topic of character growth to choice, and then to simply one act of obedience.
There is “one thing” that God is asking of you at this moment and “one thing” only. It is most likely something that God has already pressed upon your heart to do, and you may be completely aware of what it is or you may feel like you do not have the slightest clue. All I do know is this: Neither I nor anyone else can tell you what your “one thing” is. This “one thing” is between you and God alone and the range of what it might cover is limitless. It may be as simple as taking a few deep breaths or as momentous as a marriage proposal. It also can be everything in between like calling that friend, writing in your journal, making that list, planning a vacation, looking up a word in a dictionary, running a mile, picking up that bible, putting down the extra slice of cake, quitting smoking, turning off the TV or literally millions of other actions can be your “one thing.”
As we begin to wonder what that “one thing” might be in our lives, it is in the stillness and quiet of the desert that we can sometimes hear from God and reduce the universe of possibilities into one practical application of His voice into our lives. Through this process of hearing, believing, and obeying, our capacity to know and understand God grows. If it’s the first time or it’s been a long time since engaging in this process, it is experienced in a powerful way. It is like having your heart jump-started with a defibulator, awaking a part of you that you did not know existed. Oswald Chambers described this experience by saying that it is in this one moment of obedience you live, all of the rest is mere existence. What follows after obedience in that “one thing” can lead you to the next step and then really begin to build momentum, but I want to draw our attention on that first step and why it has so much power.
My first “one thing” moment was telling my friends about my faith over the phone one afternoon a couple of months after I became a Christian. I feel my heart beating faster in my chest, and then my words spill out through the telephone line. I do my best to explain what I understood of God and of Christianity, not really trying to persuade them, but hoping to find validation in my beliefs through their acceptance. I don’t think it went over very well, and I think I left my friends feeling more confused. The moments afterwards are incredible. As a shy ninth grader, I cannot believe that I have just given my testimony to my friends and shared with them a very deep and personal part of my life. In love, I made myself completely vulnerable to the possibility of rejection, and I came out the other side, not feeling like I had accomplished some victory for the Kingdom of God, but simply an experience of knowing what it is like to hear, believe and obey.
I’ve found this especially helpful when the pattern that I am operating in has been one of defeat and failure when trying to live the type of Christian life I so desire to live. During these times, my self-esteem takes a major nose dive, and coming back to this place of “one thing” begins to build it up again brick by brick. To set a goal and to accomplish it, no matter how small or insignificant has a profound impact on me. It gives me peace in the midst of my emotional storms. In one sense, a tiny seed is planted in my heart during these moments. From that small seed of the “one thing” grows a depth of heart-character and faith that makes the grand vision of God and His purpose real and true in my life.
During some of my devotion times in college, I usually ended by trying to find a concrete application of that devotion into the rest of my life. Sometimes it was based on something I read in the Bible, or I engage further in introspection to discern what needs to be done; sometimes it is very ordinary. One day, I was a little surprised and also not when I felt in my heart the application for that day was to complete my problem set for my class. Do your homework. That was it. That was the whole sum of what God was wanting me to do for that day. Obey that. For me tonight it was to write more of this book. There’s a common theme is this growth of our passion for heart-character growth: to hear, believe, and obey.
Consider the story of Mary and Martha when Jesus comes to their house as a guest:
Martha was busy in the kitchen preparing dinner and making the arrangements to be a good hostess for Jesus, while Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to his words. Martha feeling upset raised the issue and said, “are you just going to let Mary just sit there while I’m slaving away in the kitchen?” To this Jesus responded, “one thing” is required of you.
The phrase “one thing” is used in more than a dozen different ways in the Bible, but in the context of heart-character growth, I believe Jesus’ words convey the importance of focusing our attention on “one thing.”
Observation - What does it mean to have your open in “one thing?”
Understanding - What thing or things are you placing before your pursuit of God?
Application - Can you pray for willingness to lay down that “one thing?”
