All I Want

Mar 23, 2021

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

- King David, Psalm 23:1

"I've noticed, especially in the past few years, that I tend to avoid books with the word ‘victorious’ in the title."

- A Friend

Anybody else struggle with the fact that you are unambiguously Christian and at the same time unmistakably human? In fact, my journey has become more human, not less, since I encountered this One called Jesus. Several years ago, Ken Blanchard told a story about a young family member who had been raised in the church and recently had broken away and adopted a lifestyle that religious people said was morally wrong. Some of these people, who Ken had known a long time, approached him and said, "You need to tell her that what she's doing is wrong!" Ken looked at them and said, "That's above my pay grade… my only job is to love her." You see, he had given her to Jesus a long time ago.

I've discovered there is a big difference between "doing" Christianity and "being" a Christian.

It's the difference between knowing the words and experiencing their meaning… or the difference between believing the words are right and knowing that they are true. Memorizing Scripture for me has never been hard. But understanding it and experiencing it has been the greatest adventure of my life. For instance, as a young boy, I learned the words to Psalm 23:1: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." Thirty-one vowels and consonants, giving voice to a particular truth that, if properly understood and experienced, would radically re-shape and transform our lives...

"The"... a word we often overlook or use as filler in sentences or as a simple bookend… but a word that is always and exclusively used to express what is Reality -- i.e. The Book, The Table, The Sky, The Person, The Lord.

"The Lord"... is the Reality… the Source… the Purpose… the Power… the Privilege of my existence.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want”... for love… for joy… for peace… for hope… for grace… for mercy… for guidance… for heaven.

As a young man, Tim Hansel, had been involved in a horrible accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. He talked about this verse in Psalm 23. He said, for years people asked me...

"Haven't you wanted the Lord to heal you?"

"Of course."

"Why do you think He hasn't healed you?"

"He has."

"But I thought you were in pain?"

"I am."

"I don't understand."

"I have prayed hundreds, if not thousands, of times for the Lord to heal me -- finally, He healed me of the need to be healed. It was then that I discovered a Peace inside the Pain."

Friends… we know how tough life can be. Stress, disappointments, heartache, hurt -- all are part of the human condition. But while pain is unavoidable, misery is optional! Jesus is alive and working right where you are right now to deliver on His promise to you!