Hello,
Friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighborhood monkey and dogs.
Welcome back to our series,
What Do You Want?
Where we've been learning to listen.
To the desires that are within us.
And bye now.
You've begun to realize the question,
Well I hope you've begun to realize that the question,
What do you want?
Isn't anywhere as simple.
As it sounds.
Over this series we've discovered that sometimes we don't even know.
What we're looking for sometimes.
We want change,
But we're afraid of what the change might mean.
Sometimes our desires are mixed,
Mixed with things like ambition and recognition,
The need to feel significant.
We've discovered the importance of being able to name what it is that we want.
We've explored the deeper thirst that's underneath our desires when we notice them at the surface.
And we've also seen how easily that busyness and responsibility can drown out the desires within us that aren't quite so loud.
Today we're going to have a look at the other side of desire because sometimes discovering what we want isn't the hardest part.
Sometimes there's a harder question.
And that is,
What are we unwilling?
To let go of.
Now in the Gospels,
There's a man who comes to Jesus.
He's often called.
.
.
The rich young ruler.
And we read about him in Mark chapter 10.
Versus 17.
To 27.
So let's listen to the text together first.
As he was setting out on a journey,
A man ran up and knelt before Jesus and asked him,
�Good teacher,
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
� Jesus said to him,
Why do you call me good?
No one's good but God alone.
You know the commandments.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness.
You shall not defraud.
Honor your father and mother.
He said to him,
Teacher,
I've kept all these since my youth.
Jesus looking at him.
Loved him and said,
You lack one thing.
Go sell what you own and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come follow me.
When he heard this,
He was shocked.
And went away grieving.
Because he had many.
Possessions.
And then Jesus looked around and said to the disciples,
How hard it will be for those who have wealth.
To enter the kingdom of God.
And the disciples were perplexed at these words.
But Jesus said to them again,
Children,
How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
Than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.
And they were greatly astounded and said to one another,
Then who can be saved?
Jesus looked at them and said,
For mortals,
It is impossible.
But not for God.
For God,
All things are possible.
Now the rich young ruler comes running to Jesus,
Kneels before him.
And he asks a very serious question.
He wants eternal life.
And that word in the Greek is aion,
Which isn't talking about life forever and ever and ever and ever.
It's talking about a quality of life.
He wants the life that is truly life.
He wants something more than what he's got right now.
And Jesus.
.
.
Looks at him.
And I think there's something beautiful about the fact that Jesus doesn't dismiss him.
This isn't someone who doesn't care.
He's not cynical or indifferent.
This man genuinely wants God.
He genuinely wants something more from life.
And maybe that's why this encounter is one of those that a lot of people find very uncomfortable to read,
Because the man already wants the right thing.
But in the context of the conversation,
Jesus begins to show him that wanting something,
Isn't always enough.
There are sometimes desires.
That compete with each other,
And sometimes the deepest desire of our hearts has to confront the thing.
That we've become attached to.
Jesus eventually tells him.
To sell what he has,
Give it to the poor,
And then come and follow him.
And Mark tells us that the man walks away sad.
Why?
Again,
Mark's very specific.
He walks away sad.
Because he has great positions.
Now most people take the easy route and they turn this story into a lesson about money,
And possessions,
But I think there's a bigger question that's going on here because most of us have things we don't want to let go of.
And they're not necessarily possessions in the way we would think of possessions.
We can become attached to things like control.
Or reputation.
Things like certainty and being right.
Things like being needed.
Like our independence or our own plans.
To the way that people see us.
We can become attached to a particular identity or even an older version of ourselves.
And we can become attached to the life we thought we were going to have.
And sometimes we say,
I want something new.
But maybe what we're really saying?
Is I want something new provided I don't have to give up anything that I'm currently holding on to and life quite often does not work that way.
If you've grown even a little bit,
You'll know that growth almost always involves some kind of letting go,
Some kind of release.
Think about the things that you've wanted to change in your life.
Maybe you wanted more freedom,
But you don't want to give up control.
Or maybe you've wanted deeper relationships,
But it's a bit hard to risk that vulnerability.
Or maybe you've wanted a new beginning.
But it's hard to leave the familiar.
Or maybe you're looking for a simpler life,
But you really don't want to give up the status or the possessions and the things that make life complicated.
Maybe you've wanted to hear God more clearly,
But you really don't want to surrender the noise and the distractions.
And this is where the rich young ruler becomes a mirror.
He wants this fullness of life,
This aeon.
But Jesus invites him into a different way of living and suddenly his desire comes with a cost.
You can't always move towards something.
Without moving away.
From something else.
Every genuine desire eventually asks something of us.
If you want to become healthier,
You have to change your habits.
If you want deeper relationships,
You have to become more vulnerable.
You want a different career.
There's going to be some risk and uncertainty about that.
If you want more time.
You have to start saying no to some things.
If you want to be more present.
Then maybe there's something else you have to put down.
If you want to follow Jesus more deeply,
You might have to loosen your grip on the things that compete.
For your allegiances.
And this is where the question we've been holding this whole series,
What do you want,
Becomes really serious because I don't think we really know what we want.
Until we're confronted with what it might cost.
It's easy to say that we want freedom,
Perhaps.
But what if freedom means disappointing someone?
We might say I want to live authentically,
But.
.
.
A.
What does authentically mean,
And b.
What if that means.
.
.
Something that you've got to change that other people have to become comfortable with.
What if you want to follow God?
But following God leads somewhere that you hadn't planned.
Saying something like,
I want a different life is very easy,
But if that means letting go of the identity that you've spent years and years and years constructing.
How would you feel about that?
Now,
Desire and surrender aren't opposites,
They belong together,
And in fact sometimes surrenders the way that desire becomes clearer.
Because when we loosen our grip,
On what we think we need to control.
We begin to discover what actually matters.
And this is where I think the story of the rich young ruler becomes deeply spiritual.
Jesus.
Isn't just asking the rich young ruler to give something away.
He's asking a different question.
He's asking,
What owns you?
And that's a very different question.
We normally flip it,
What do I own?
More importantly,
It might be better to ask what owns me,
What owns you?
What has such a hold on us that we can't imagine being without it?
What would we become afraid of losing?
What if it were taken away?
Would cause us to question our worth.
What do we secretly believe we need in order to be okay?
Something can be a blessing.
And still be an attachment.
Money.
Family work.
A home.
Some sort of achievement,
Even ministry,
All those things can be a blessing,
But any good thing can become something we cling to so tightly.
That we're no longer free.
And freedom.
Is really what is at stake here.
I don't think Jesus is trying to make the rich young ruler poorer.
Simply for the sake of being poor.
He's inviting this guy to freedom.
The question was,
What will give me fullness of life?
What will give me freedom?
To follow,
To receive,
To give,
To become someone.
Whose life isn't about protecting what it is that they have.
And so Jesus truly is answering his question with this.
And this is where.
Desire becomes deeply connected to love because love requires.
.
.
A certain degree of release.
Because to love someone.
.
.
Is to give up some control.
And to welcome another person into our space.
To give ourselves to something meaningful.
Is to surrender any other possibilities,
To follow a calling,
Is to say no to some other lives that you could have lived.
We can't hold every possibility forever,
And at some point,
Desire asks us to choose.
And maybe that's one of the hardest things.
About being human,
That we want everything.
We want security and adventure.
We want freedom and certainty.
We want intimacy and complete independence.
We want meaningful work and unlimited leisure,
Change and familiarity.
We want God and control.
And eventually we discover that some desires compete with each other.
And we've got to ask,
Which desire is worth giving the rest of my life to?
And that's a very,
Very different question from what do I feel like doing today?
So this series.
.
.
Isn't about getting everything we want.
It's about discovering the desire that's deep enough to organize our lives around.
The desire that's worth the sacrifice,
The desire that makes us more alive,
The desire that makes us more loving,
The desire that opens us rather than closes us.
The desire that leads us towards God.
Rather than away from ourselves,
If you can see the slight difference there.
So today.
.
.
Think about something you want,
Something you've been asking for,
Hoping will change,
And then ask yourself this question.
What would I have to release?
In order to move towards it.
It could be a practical thing or an old habit or an expectation.
It could be someone's approval,
It could be a certain version of yourself.
It could be fear or control,
Or just the assumption that your life has to remain exactly as it is.
And then notice what happens.
When you see that.
Do you feel any resistance?
If so,
Don't push it away straight away,
Listen to it.
What are you afraid of losing?
What are you afraid would happen if you let go?
Sometimes the thing that we're unwilling to surrender tells us more about what we truly desire than the thing we say we want.
Let me say that again.
Sometimes the thing that we're unwilling to surrender tells us more about what we truly desire.
Than the thing we say we want.
The rich young man walks away from Jesus sad and we don't know what happens next.
The gospel doesn't tell us whether he comes back.
But I kind of find this a little bit hopeful,
Which sounds weird,
But.
.
.
The story's a bit unfinished.
So maybe there's moments in our own lives where we walk away because we're not ready.
And maybe the story doesn't finish there,
Because Jesus doesn't stop loving us because we're not ready.
Some invitations might take time.
Surrender.
Is a process and maybe the question stays with us until one day?
We are able to answer differently.
So today,
I encourage you to hold two questions together.
First,
What do I really want?
But then the second,
What am I unwilling?
To let go of.
Maybe there's a third question.
Could the thing I'm unwilling to release be preventing me from receiving the life that I say I want.
Sit with that tension.
Between desire.
And attachment because there I think is where you begin to discover what your heart really wants.
And what it might take to live it.
And my grace,
Peace and love be with you as you sit with those questions and hold you as you see where you need to go today and always.
Until tomorrow.
Bye for now.
