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“Gumbo Mud”
What does it mean to love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul? It's a great question, and it's one that each of us should explore from time to time.
As some people know, I'm an outdoorsman. I've spent much of my life wading through flooded rice fields, timber, and marsh grass. Those areas are almost always underwater, which means the ground is soft, stinky, sticky, and sometimes treacherous. I've always called it “gumbo mud,” and that gumbo mud has engulfed me plenty of times. It is not a pleasant experience, and the more one fights to get out of it, the worse it usually gets.
When I consider what it means to love God with all of my heart, mind, and soul, the simplest way for me to understand it is to ask myself, “What is my motivation for a certain thought, word, or action?” If it's not rooted in God's love, then I may not be on the right track.
Of course, it's part of my vocation to help explain this to people as well as live it out in my own life. However, it's really, really difficult to do. There's always something pulling at us, trying to steer us away from what is good and what God wants us to do.
Now, before you think that I'm about to jump into a lecture about spiritual warfare, let's back it down a bit. Whatever is happening beyond our vision and understanding is also largely outside our ability to control. What we can understand is our own situation. Even if it's a bad situation, it's the one that weighs heavily upon our hearts and confuses our minds.
In the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, God urges us to love the LORD with all of our being. That command is more than a suggestion to have good feelings. It is also a way to understand our place in this big world of both the seen and unseen. It's not necessarily a way out of a complicated situation. However, it is a way to begin viewing our circumstances from a larger perspective.
Even though we often treat this world as if we're the only ones in it, there's much more out there to consider. When we become stuck in the gumbo mud of life, we discover that the more we struggle, the worse things can get. The best way out is often to stop, slow down our heart rate, and take a few deep breaths. Slow, intentional, and thoughtful movements can sometimes reveal solutions that we couldn't see before.
This is one of the many places in life where remembering to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul can really help. It reminds us that we aren't alone, that our immediate problems aren't the whole story, and that our first responsibility is to remain faithful to God.
Unfortunately, we usually have to struggle for a while before we remember it. In my case, it's often only after I've struggled and made things worse that I remember what's most important. It's rather silly, actually. I often know ahead of time that the mud will be sticky and deep. Getting stuck is part of reality, and since I already know it, I should be able to prepare a little better.
Maybe that's the lesson. We can't always avoid the gumbo mud of life, but we can learn not to fight it blindly. Sometimes the best thing we can do is stop struggling long enough to remember who we're supposed to be following.
And if we're going to get stuck in the mud anyway, we might as well remember to bring God along before we take the first step.
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:36-37, NRSV).
God Bless, Brock
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