One Thing You Lack

Once a man came to see Jesus (Mark 10:17-22), fell down on his knees and asked him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus told him to know and do the commandments and the man responded that he had followed these since he was a little boy. The scriptures said that “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” Here is someone looking to have a relationship with God and Jesus has only love and compassion for him, even with what he would next ask him to do. Jesus told him there is only one thing that he lacked, and that is to sell everything he owned and give it to the poor.

One thing he lacked.

I wondered as I read this event that if I would fall down before Jesus today and have a similar conversation, what would Jesus say that I lacked? I spent an hour or more walking during my retreat two weeks ago thinking this very thing. I discovered something pretty amazing. There wasn’t one thing that I lacked, but many. As the scriptures flowed over my mind and heart I was reminded of many things that I fall very short of in my relationship with God. Yet I was assured on this one great truth: Even as God was revealing things to my mind, my heart was filled with love by God. There was not an air of evaluative judgment, but of love for me in all my shortcomings, and a desire for me to be more than I already was.

I may lack many things, but never love from God. I finished my walk in peace, and a strong sense of God’s presence to strengthen my walk with Him.

If Jesus would say to you, "One thing you lack...." What would it be?