A Danish philosopher tells the story of a spider that lowered a single strand from the top rafter of an old barn and began to weave his web. Days, weeks, and months went by, and the web grew and grew. Its elaborate maze provided the spider with everything he needed—flies, mosquitoes, and many other small insects. The web became larger and larger, until it was the envy of all of the other barn spiders.
One day, as this very industrious spider was traveling across his magnificent web, he noticed a single strand going up into the darkness of the rafters. "I wonder why this is here," he thought, "it doesn't really serve to catch me any dinner." And with that, the spider climbed as high as he could and severed the single strand. When he did, the entire web slowly began to tumble to the floor of the barn, taking the spider down with it. Yes, what a short-sighted spider, for he failed to remember how that strand had been the beginning of everything—in a sense, the only thing—the very thread that held him up!
Every man, woman, or child, who has clipped the strand that unites us with God, endeavoring to find meaning, satisfaction, and sense in life, has been tremendously disappointed in the end. Yes, even tragically ruined in the process! Edwin Young once wrote, "There is simply no coherence in a life lived out on our own terms, with no reference to the Divine." The apostle Paul wrote that Jesus Christ was before all things, and that in Him all things held together. In Paul's letter to the Colossian church we find that it was the Christ who was involved in the work of creation, and He is also the Head of the Church. Praise God—He is the first-born from the dead, and it is in Him that all of the fullness of God dwells. When we try to sever our lives from that sustaining thread—that "scarlet cord," which is symbolic of the streaming blood of Jesus Christ—everything falls apart! This "scarlet thread" is first pictured at the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6. Rahab, who helped the spies of Israel, was to place such a cord in her window in the wall, marking the place of salvation for her and her family. It was the "one thing" that would protect her. The theologian, Søren Kierkegaard, once wrote a book entitled, "The Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing." He contended that a pure heart was a heart with a singular focus, which, by the way, was not a thought original to him.
Paul was a man with a laser-like focus on one thing. In Philippians 3, we read, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him...Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Above all things, he wanted to experientially know Jesus Christ, and that was his entire focus. He was a very one-dimensional man, and as much as this world thinks that that is a bad thing, it is the best thing! But guess what? Even Paul was not the first one to have such a focus.
Look at Jesus! In Mark 10, we find a rich young ruler seeking Jesus, asking what else he needed to do to gain heaven. This was the man's first problem—his focus was on doing, that is, earning his own salvation.
When he called Jesus a "good teacher," the Lord made it clear that none but God was truly good, intimating, of course, that He—Jesus—was God in the flesh! When Jesus listed off several commandments for him to obey, the ruler made it clear that he had—even from his childhood—been there, done that—as they say. That is when it happened—"Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go they way, sell whatsover thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the Cross, and follow me." (vs.21) In His mercy, Jesus just cut to the chase and made it clear that the man was "hung up" on his stuff. If you let anything become more important to you than the resurrected life of Jesus working in you—through the Body of Christ—then there is indeed a problem!
Do you remember the time that Jesus was in Bethany with His good friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and a situation arose? Yes, Mary was spending a good deal of time focused on Jesus, while sitting at His feet, listening to His every word, when her sister, Martha, was getting all stressed out with all of the details of the meal preparation. When the latter tried to get Jesus to reprimand the former, Jesus said, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42) Many things vs. the one thing! Oh, certainly it is not wrong to prepare a meal for a guest, but when Jesus is no longer THE beloved guest in that house, there is a problem. In John 9, we find the story of Jesus healing the man that had been born blind—he had never seen before! But now he could, and the Pharisees were in an uproar over this Sabbath day healing. When they tried to intimidate the man into declaring that Jesus was a sinner, and, therefore, not a good man, the formerly blind man replied, "Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." (vs.25) This Jesus was not only a good man, but God incarnate!
We especially see this need to discern between "many things" and the "one thing" as we make our way deeper and deeper into this New Year of 2013. Every day brings more busyness, and with that, more and more self-imposed responsibility. Our lives get all "stuffed up" with "stuff." So many things that the one thing that is really important, gets shoved aside. More and more, the one thing—Jesus—gets put off to the back burner, so to speak, and the focus becomes all about us and our plans. It is kind of like the spider snipping off that single strand—we forget just how crucial an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ really is—and SNIP—as Pastor Young put it, "...there is simply no coherence in a life lived out on our own terms..." The secular humanists tell us that we are moving toward our ultimate potential, and that it is just a matter of time before we make right all that has been wrong. You have got to be kidding—and that they expect to do without the Cross? The "New Agers" demand that we leave true Christianity behind and replace it with our own understanding, which, they say, will usher in a "new age," where we become our own gods. Kind of handy, isn't it? No authority but our own! Many of the prosperity preachers put forth something very similar, only they use the name of "Jesus" a lot more, which does fool a lot of people!
Well, BALONEY—I say, to all three, as well as to a whole myriad of other faulty belief systems. So many today want to make life be nothing but a dreamland—a series of re-runs played over and over again, and as long as the whole thing goes their way, then all is terrific. Praise God—that is not the way it works! God never meant for us to have a circular existence. From our beginning, recorded in Genesis, man was built for linear living. We were created to go somewhere—with purpose, and for the sake of reality—God's reality! Leon Uris wrote a history of Ireland called, "Trinity." At the conclusion, having looked at over hundreds of years of history, he states, "There is no future for Ireland, only the past happening over and over again." So is there no way out of this "re-run city?" Can we hope for new scenery for the journey? King Solomon, in the Book of Ecclesiastes, said many were living out a pointless existence—sin, confess; sin, confess; sin, confess—never actually ever being set-free from sin. God says life is full of purpose—just read 1 John 1! We were meant for linear living, but sin has lured many into a circular pattern—almost a mindless repetition of what has been before—from day to day, month to month, year to year. We are meant to live in relationship, but our sin has enticed us into hiding, isolation, and self-preservation. Praise God—Solomon's father, King David, saw it God's way, not man's way. In Psalm 27:4, he confidently states, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." Quite simply, he is saying that he is demanding to truly know the real Jesus, abiding in His holy presence, and plowing through each day as it comes, and living—not just existing—but living in the glow of a spiritual breakthrough. Praise God—may your one thing this year be that scarlet thread that can hold you in these days, and throughout all of eternity. That scarlet thread is the sacrificial love of God!
