Deuteronomy 10:12-13 -- On Mortal Amnesia

"And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?"
Deuteronomy 10:12-13


This is good stuff. :)  It is interesting to me that it sounds like we are dorks for thinking the whole thing is hard... like "what's the big deal? God only asks you to do tiny tiny things."  And, so I was thinking about that... and you know, it really is true.

Think about someone in your life that you love more than sliced bread... and if that person asked you to do these kinds of things, wouldn't it be easy for you?  To give them respect and to love them... to do what they do?  I mean, especially if you know that they care about you too, so much that they like you better than chocolate or something... then you listen to them when they warn you about things, and when they ask you to call them, you do.  You go places with them, and if you could, you would spend every waking moment talking to them and laughing with them.

So, you know... none of this stuff is really hard... unless we put other things before the Lord.  If someone we can't stand asks us to eat chocolate cake, no matter how much we love it... we would probably say no.  If they want us to call, or to write... or tell us about their favorite book, or music... we don't care.  We aren't going to read it or buy it... so, really, all of this depends on how much we love God.  If he tells us about his favorite book... do we want to read it?  Or do we just walk by it in the store, not curious at all?

The challenge, as I see it... is to overcome some of this mortal amnesia and actually get to know God again.  We *used* to love him well enough that we would do anything for him... go anywhere to be with him.  Can we find that again?