Give Me Jesus

This morning as I was "running" (and it wasn't pretty) I was listening to Fernando Ortega. I sort of pick my ipod music by my mood:

• Energetic- Stephen Curtis Chapman
• Really Energetic- Casting Crowns or Third Day
• Needing Encouragement- Laura Story
• No mood- just a mix of whatever
• Contemplative- Fernando Ortega

This morning I was feeling contemplative. Mostly I think I was just contemplating how much I didn't want to run.  But I ran, with Fernando singing in my ears and as I was struggling up a hill, tying to find whatever shade was possible because at 8:00 am it was already hot...

• Aside- finding the shade meant I had to run right next to the Rottweilers. So I would like to publicly thank Rotty 1 and Rotty 2 for your personal "encouragement" this morning. Your incessant barking certainly helped me to run faster

...struggling to put one foot in front of the other

• Aside #2- curious as to who it was who caused my shoes to weigh at least ten pounds more each this morning. Now that they are off my feet they seem to be back to normal. Weird.

...trying to breath

• Aside #3- was it the heat that sucked the oxygen out of the air? ....or did it all get sucked into my shoes and that is what made them heavy?....or did the Rottweilers use it all up in order to be able to bark so long and loud?

....Alright, sorry, got distracted. I will make my point.

Back to Fernando and this morning. I was listening to one of his songs with this line, "you can have all this world, just give me Jesus."

And so as I struggled up the hill I began to list in my mind what were the things on my "WORLD" list that get in the way of my Jesus.

WORLD:

1. desire for a remodeled kitchen
2. desire for a car with less than 100,000 miles and without the "customized hood" from "kissing" the car in front of us.
3. dream garden
4. recovered furniture
5. resolved relationship issues
6. resolved business issues
7. "enough" money -whatever that means
8. time
9. to-do lists that are done at the end of the day
10. school schedules that actually work for more than two days in a row
11. personal character issues resolved in my life
12. personal character issues resolved in my kids' lives
13. ability to go from "running" to Running!
14. .......

That is a very incomplete list by the way, but it is a start.

But honestly, you can have. You can have it all.

Just give me Jesus. 

Because even if all those things happened, without Jesus it wouldn't be enough. Even if my budget overflowed and my piles were non-existent and my house was fixed-up and I finally ran in that 10K, even with all of everything done or accomplished or performed or supplied.....

Even with ALL that....without Jesus....it would never, ever be enough.

"You can have all this world, just give me Jesus."