Throughout the past few weeks, while forming new year’s resolutions and dreaming up goals for 2015, I’ve noticed the re-occurrence of a particular word: more. I am officially fed up with this word, which I think is actually quite fitting. Because, when we say “more”, it means we’ve deemed whatever we currently have to be insufficient. It’s not enough. We are grasping or searching for something additional to satisfy us. We want something more. I want something more than more.
This is from my prayer a few days ago: “God, I’m always chasing more, which, as a concept, makes the end of everyday feel inadequate. .. more… I think it might be a new least favorite word.” And I haven’t ever even made a point to note which words I dislike.
We as a people have bought into this practice of always chasing the next thing, something additional, something more. In a materialistic society, it’s often what drives our thoughts and our actions… And there is an element of truth to it. We were, in fact, made for more, more than this world, more than just ourselves. The fact that we’re constantly looking for something additional, longing for something beyond attests to that.
However, the “more” we often chase comes in the form of deeds done, or things acquired, or personal achievements. We’re chasing these things because we think in someway they will fulfill us. The world has lied to us, making us believe that catching them will eradicate the emptiness and longing we feel. In truth, these things are fleeting and they cannot answer our ache for something lasting, eternal and divine. We need to de-bunk the myths, and set our eyes once again, on the only “more” that is really worth chasing.
Lie 1: More done = more worthwhile.
This is the classic “life is a rat race” mentality. We’re always trying to get more done, or go more places, or connect with more people. Most of the time, these things are actually good, we’re just trying too much of a good thing into too little time. So we run ourselves ragged, and if for some reason we didn’t completely wear ourselves out today, we’ll all just have to try harder tomorrow. And in doing so, we’re actually making our days less worthwhile, less meaningful.
You are not a machine.
Your life is not measured by your output of tasks completed.
You are a person.
Your life is measured on your input and output of love.
Every day is a gift that contains only 24 hours. It is impossible for us to cram a week’s worth of things into it, but I know, if I’m being honest, that’s what I spend most of my time trying to do. It’s a losing battle. Take some time in prayer, listen to the Lord. Then do what God is calling you to do that day and do it with love. That’s it. Mission accomplished. Day full of worth, the exact worth that God intended for that day to have. “Give us this day our daily bread…”
Lie 2: More = motivation exemplar
Recently, I‘ve felt the Lord challenging me to grow in kindness. Up until last week, my response was always the same: “I need to be more kind.” That seemed to make sense. Just do more. But then, after a few days with that mantra, I saw that my behavior wasn’t actually changing, no matter how many times I said, “be more kind.” I started thinking about why and realized - “be more kind” - I have no idea what that means. What does that look like? There’s no definite way of knowing. Plus, it’s quite difficult for me to be additionally kind, if I’m not even practicing kindness to begin with. Instead of chasing more kindness, I needed to work on living out kindness at all.
New strategy: Instead of “be more kind”, I changed my words to simply “be kind”. And it was empowering. Sort of like Nike’s slogan, “Just do it”, there’s no wiggle room. It’s straightforward and direct. I’m either being kind, or I’m not. I think this is the kind of sharp definition God has always had in mind for us. He didn’t make us to be more loving – He made us to love. Period. We’re either loving, or we’re not. It’s simple and concrete. That’s the way we need to go about living as sons and daughters of God. We just need to be His, and live that out, fully and completely with everything we are.
Lie 3: More stuff = happiness
More has become a trick that our temporal-ness has pulled over on our eternal-ness. We look around and think, the more stuff we have, or the more things we fill our days with the happier we’ll be. The more the merrier. But, the things of this world will never fully satisfy us. We can chase them and acquire them by the billion, but it won’t make any difference on our everlasting happiness. We long for the infinite. C.S. Lewis once said, ““If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” Our infinite longing reveals our infinite origin and infinite end.
There’s a song I really like by a band called Urban Rescue. Ironically, the song’s name is “More”. (I know, nobody saw that coming – plot twist.) It’s a prayer and the bridge is beautiful:
“All of my fears and failures, I lay them down for something more, for more of You.
All that this world can offer, I give it all away for more, for more, of You.”
More of God, more of Love Himself. That is the only more worth worrying about, the only thing worth chasing. And the exciting part is, when we have God, we always have all of Him. He never withholds any part of His love from us. We just have to make more room in our hearts for Him, so that He can then give us more of Himself. God is the one thing that can fully satisfy us, and, in the same instance, the one thing that will always make our hearts cry - “more.”
This is from my prayer a few days ago: “God, I’m always chasing more, which, as a concept, makes the end of everyday feel inadequate. .. more… I think it might be a new least favorite word.” And I haven’t ever even made a point to note which words I dislike.
We as a people have bought into this practice of always chasing the next thing, something additional, something more. In a materialistic society, it’s often what drives our thoughts and our actions… And there is an element of truth to it. We were, in fact, made for more, more than this world, more than just ourselves. The fact that we’re constantly looking for something additional, longing for something beyond attests to that.
However, the “more” we often chase comes in the form of deeds done, or things acquired, or personal achievements. We’re chasing these things because we think in someway they will fulfill us. The world has lied to us, making us believe that catching them will eradicate the emptiness and longing we feel. In truth, these things are fleeting and they cannot answer our ache for something lasting, eternal and divine. We need to de-bunk the myths, and set our eyes once again, on the only “more” that is really worth chasing.
Lie 1: More done = more worthwhile.
This is the classic “life is a rat race” mentality. We’re always trying to get more done, or go more places, or connect with more people. Most of the time, these things are actually good, we’re just trying too much of a good thing into too little time. So we run ourselves ragged, and if for some reason we didn’t completely wear ourselves out today, we’ll all just have to try harder tomorrow. And in doing so, we’re actually making our days less worthwhile, less meaningful.
You are not a machine.
Your life is not measured by your output of tasks completed.
You are a person.
Your life is measured on your input and output of love.
Every day is a gift that contains only 24 hours. It is impossible for us to cram a week’s worth of things into it, but I know, if I’m being honest, that’s what I spend most of my time trying to do. It’s a losing battle. Take some time in prayer, listen to the Lord. Then do what God is calling you to do that day and do it with love. That’s it. Mission accomplished. Day full of worth, the exact worth that God intended for that day to have. “Give us this day our daily bread…”
Lie 2: More = motivation exemplar
Recently, I‘ve felt the Lord challenging me to grow in kindness. Up until last week, my response was always the same: “I need to be more kind.” That seemed to make sense. Just do more. But then, after a few days with that mantra, I saw that my behavior wasn’t actually changing, no matter how many times I said, “be more kind.” I started thinking about why and realized - “be more kind” - I have no idea what that means. What does that look like? There’s no definite way of knowing. Plus, it’s quite difficult for me to be additionally kind, if I’m not even practicing kindness to begin with. Instead of chasing more kindness, I needed to work on living out kindness at all.
New strategy: Instead of “be more kind”, I changed my words to simply “be kind”. And it was empowering. Sort of like Nike’s slogan, “Just do it”, there’s no wiggle room. It’s straightforward and direct. I’m either being kind, or I’m not. I think this is the kind of sharp definition God has always had in mind for us. He didn’t make us to be more loving – He made us to love. Period. We’re either loving, or we’re not. It’s simple and concrete. That’s the way we need to go about living as sons and daughters of God. We just need to be His, and live that out, fully and completely with everything we are.
Lie 3: More stuff = happiness
More has become a trick that our temporal-ness has pulled over on our eternal-ness. We look around and think, the more stuff we have, or the more things we fill our days with the happier we’ll be. The more the merrier. But, the things of this world will never fully satisfy us. We can chase them and acquire them by the billion, but it won’t make any difference on our everlasting happiness. We long for the infinite. C.S. Lewis once said, ““If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” Our infinite longing reveals our infinite origin and infinite end.
There’s a song I really like by a band called Urban Rescue. Ironically, the song’s name is “More”. (I know, nobody saw that coming – plot twist.) It’s a prayer and the bridge is beautiful:
“All of my fears and failures, I lay them down for something more, for more of You.
All that this world can offer, I give it all away for more, for more, of You.”
More of God, more of Love Himself. That is the only more worth worrying about, the only thing worth chasing. And the exciting part is, when we have God, we always have all of Him. He never withholds any part of His love from us. We just have to make more room in our hearts for Him, so that He can then give us more of Himself. God is the one thing that can fully satisfy us, and, in the same instance, the one thing that will always make our hearts cry - “more.”