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“‘Want’ will eventually wear down ‘should.’”


A thought by John Ortberg from his book, The Me I Want to Be (p. 81). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

And that is a very good thing!

John says, “‘Should’ is a kind of auxiliary engine. It is necessary to have this, and sometimes I must do things simply because I should. But if I am running in a marathon, it doesn’t matter at mile marker twenty-three whether I think I should finish. I will finish because I want to finish. ‘Want’ will eventually wear down ‘should.’

“Likewise, spiritual growth doesn’t mean a life of doing what I should do instead of what I want to do. It means coming to want to do what I should do… when people come to understand how good God is, they want him. They don’t just love him. They like him.

“We might look at it this way: When we tell people they ought to do something, we can take that ‘ought’ in two ways — the ought of obligation and the ought of opportunity. The first kind is our duty. You ought to pay your taxes. You ought to keep your dog on a leash. You ought to take your drivers’ test. The second kind gives us life. You ought to take a break. You ought to see the world. You ought to taste this cake.

“The ‘ought’ of Jesus’ message is mainly an ought of opportunity.”

John goes on, “When we become aware of this, we feel guilty because our desire for God does not run deep enough — but we cannot make ourselves desire God more by telling ourselves that we should. God is so gracious and patient, wanting us to want him, that he is willing to work with this kind of honesty. That is why we are invited to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good.’ (Psalm 34:8)

“Taste is an experimental word. It is an invitation from a confident chef. You don’t have to commit to eating the whole thing; just try a sample — taste. If you don’t like it, you can skip the rest. But the chef is convinced that if he can get you to take one bite, you are going to want the whole enchilada.”

Oh, that we would step out and really taste and then we will really see.  Will you do that?

Yes, yes!

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