Your Lion Strength

We concluded our Wizard of Oz themed series this past Sunday, exploring the Shema prayer. The Shema prayer is the foundational prayer of Judaism and served as the context for Jesus’ answer as to which was the greatest commandment: to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Each week in the series we took one of the four topics and explored biblical wisdom, using characters from The Wizard of Oz to help make it applicable. We love God with our heart when we follow God’s plan and purpose for our life. We love God with our soul when our mind, body, and will are integrated to live according to that purpose. We love God with our mind when we make the intentional decisions necessary to keep our soul integrated and keep our heart in line with God’s purpose. And as we concluded the series this past week, we talked about loving God with our strength.

The biblical languages give us some fascinating insight into what it means to love God with our strength. The connotation points to dealing with fire. On one hand it refers to using a poker to stir coals and embers to keep a fire hot. It also points to helping another person going through the proverbial fires of life by reaching into the circumstances — regardless of the heat — to show him or her the love of God. When thinking about loving God with our strength, I can boil it down to two words: follow through.

How many times have you felt an impulse to do or say something for someone as a way to glorify God? A get well card after an illness or a surgery. A meal after the death of a loved one. A note just to say hello and you care. They all count. Whenever you felt that impulse, did you act on it, or did you put it off and never get around to it? Loving God with our strength means we choose to follow through on the leadings of the Spirit.

Just as we face a battle within our hearts pertaining to following God’s will or our own, there is a similar spiritual battle being waged for the use of our strength. The deceiver begin to mess around with us when we do not initially follow through by causing us to feel guilty. All the “coulda, shoulda, wouldas” creep in and the longer we go without following through on our godly impulses, the guiltier we feel. Then, as a result of that guilt, we shy away from doing the things we should have done in the first place. What is curious about that, though, is frequently the potential recipient of our follow through wasn’t even aware of it; as a result, we deprive someone of a loving connection, and deprive ourselves the joy of performing a loving action. Guilt, therefore, is a major obstacle to our follow through, but it isn’t alone.

Fear is another major obstacle. Have you ever kept from showing or telling someone you care because you were afraid of rejection? Have you ever been afraid to share your faith for the same reason? Winston Churchill once said, “Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.” And all of a sudden, this concept of follow through fits brilliantly with the overarching development of our series: we have a constant internal struggle in our heart as to whether or not we will follow God’s purpose; our soul experiences integration when we make the decision to go God’s way; we must use our mind to make the intentional decision to keep going God’s way, even if it requires faith; and follow through with our strength to show we truly love God with all we have and are, and love neighbor as self.

In The Wizard of Oz, we see a great example from the Cowardly Lion as one who made the decision to follow through and do the right thing, even though he was scared. Sure, he had a moment when he needed to jump out of a window in the Emerald City, but he joined Dorothy on her quest to bring back the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West. Follow through! This brings to mind the great quote from Ambrose Redmoon: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.” Courage helped the Lion find strength on his journey with Dorothy. Courage helped Jesus find strength in his journey to Calvary. Courage can help you find strength in your journey with God. Use that strength and follow through on the things God wants and needs you to do in response to the love He places in your life.

I had a blast following the proverbial yellow brick road, exploring Jesus’ greatest commandment and the Shema prayer. May it order and inspire us to listen to God, love God, and leave a legacy of love for God.

 “‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 

you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,

and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 

The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 11.29b-31, (NRSV)