"Forty Day Focus on the Cross" Day Two

After my devotion yesterday, a friend raised the question, “Is giving up something for lent ‘enough’?” The point of his question was that often all we are doing is giving up a small thing that is only an inconvenience to us, and not a true sacrifice; that often people are looking to do as little as they can, instead of seeking to do the most they can.

I don’t want to belittle anyone’s effort to focus more on the cross. The things that many of us give up are not huge sacrifices, or course. It is merely a symbol, a small effort to use something in our day and in our life to remind us off and on that the next 39 days need more focus on what Jesus is going to do for us on the cross, and where He leads us as He walks out of that tomb. Truthfully, I would love to spend the whole 40 days in a desert, no phone, no TV, no comforts, sleeping on the ground, going without food, and spending every moment of that time meditating on His Word and letting every pain I feel remind me of His sacrifice.

But I can’t do that, most of us can’t.

And even if I could, it wouldn’t be enough.

As the old gospel song says,
“It wouldn’t be enough, no it wouldn’t be enough,
To buy one splinter of the tree that Jesus died on.
And it couldn’t pay the price for one single drop of blood
That was shed for my salvation.”

Does that mean that I shouldn’t seek to be more? Higher? Deeper? Stronger? That I shouldn’t desire to give more? Serve more? Study more? Pray more? Love more? Worship more? Meditate more? LIVE more?

Our little symbols, our little rituals HAVE to be only a part of what our complete devotion to God is. The weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper is not the only step taken in your Christian walk. Your baptism isn’t the “finish line” or as some say, “the completion of our obedience”. By no means. Your offering, or your daily devotional reading, or a prayer or two in the morning on your way out the door, or your attendance at Sunday School, or Bible study, or even your weekly involvement in worship with the Body of believers are not the totality of your Christian walk. No one piece of religious duty comprises all that we are or are supposed to be in Christ. Every step leads toward Home. But a journey of a thousand miles does not end at the end of your driveway. You can’t get there without the first 30 feet, but you can’t get there without the last 30 feet either, or any foot or yard or mile in between.

Onward, friends. Face to the cross, our back to the world. Keep going.