I’ve been awake for five hours today, and in that short amount of time I’ve interacted with a number of things that are important to me.
- I read the Bible, checked my email, then quickly scanned the news on my iPad. My iPad is pretty important to me.
- I took a shower. When I’m in the shower, that’s one of the few times in my day when I’m sure I’ll be left alone. That’s kind of important to me.
- I made coffee with my Aeropress coffee maker. Good coffee is very important to me.
- I made breakfast for my kids, and made sure they had all their homework ready. They’re extremely important to me.
- I talked to my wife, and kissed her goodbye. She’s supremely important to me.
- I cleaned up the kitchen and living room. My house is relatively important to me.
- I turned off all the lights and fans before I left. Saving money (cough, and the environment) is fairly important to me.
- I got on my motorcycle and rode to the office. My bike is legitimately important to me.
- I sat down at my desk and got to work. My ministry is extraordinarily important to me.
There are a hundred more things that are pretty important to me, but all those things fit into one category. The title of that category is “Also.”
Paul said in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Which means there are only two categories of things you can have in this world. There’s Jesus in one category, and there’s everything else in the world in the other category. The Also category. And Paul’s point is that if you have Jesus, then everything else in the Also category is just icing on the cake.
We put a high value on our career, house, and possessions. We’re constantly guaging the happiness in our marriage and the success of our kids. We carefully structure our lives so that we’ll only have to work hard enough to fund our recreational lifestyle, but not so hard that it will impinge on our me-time. But all that stuff is just an “also.”
If our level of joy rides on the things in the “also” category, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment. Because there will come a day when we’ll lose some of those things. There may come a day when we lose all those things.
One of my good friends is a church planter in a Southeast Asian nation that’s hostile to Christianity. On Easter Sunday a few weeks ago, he was planning a big service. He invited people from all the surrounding villages. The local police found out about it, and they came to his house just as the service was starting. They told him that if he went ahead with the service, they would put him in jail. In that country, going to jail might mean that nobody will ever see you or hear from you again for the rest of your life. He said, “You can arrest me if you want, but it’s Easter Sunday, and we have a lot to celebrate, so we’re going ahead with this service.” They started singing, and by God’s grace, the police decided to leave without laying a finger on him!
My friend was ready to give up everything. His possessions, his family, his ministry, possibly even his own life. Know why he was able to do that? Because he has Jesus, and he knows that everything else is just an “also.” When you have Jesus, what else do you need?
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:35-37).