My Little Devotional: "Just One Thing"

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “A Trivial Pursuit”

Any long-time fan of the series knows that Twilight Sparkle has come a long way since the first episode. The entire plot of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” is, after all, mostly her story from student to ruler of Equestria, and being the final season she’s grown quite a bit. Yet as demonstrated in this episode, there were some things in Twilight’s life that had never changed. In particular her pride and behavior on trivia nights.

We saw a lot of the “old” Twilight in this episode; including her being obsessive compulsive, a perfectionist, and desperate to succeed no matter the cost. And, unfortunately, that led her to commit rather “un-friendly” behavior for the Princess of Friendship when she sabotaged Pinkie Pie to try and give herself an edge in the game. While she did eventually realize her mistake and patched things up with her, the mere fact that this late in the series Twilight, who supposedly embodied friendship, still had something in her life that would make her act in such a selfish manner was rather noteworthy.

However, I wonder how far removed that is from reality.

I know a number of people in my life who are, in most respects, pretty good and decent people. They are usually kind, compassionate, upright, and good neighbors to people around them. Some of these individuals are Christians, and their own devotional life and daily practices make it clear that they take their faith more seriously than many.

And yet…there’s always “the one thing”. It could be a person, a circumstance, an opinion, a vice, a behavior, a habit, etc., but it always breaks them. It’s the one trigger that gets them to act in a contradictory way or that one instance or setting in which they decide to throw Christianity over their shoulder and act just like everyone else. Sometimes even worse than everyone else.

Honestly, I can’t stand being around these Christians at times like this. Especially when that trigger is social media. On one hand, these individuals can be promoting God and Christian principles of love, service, forgiveness, and sacrifice…and then they’ll turn around and do something that contradicts all of that. They basically exposed themselves to the world as hypocrites which, as those of us who dip into the Gospels know, Jesus had little tolerance for. And often, these people don’t even seem to realize when they’re acting out like this or, if they do, they try to find a way to make an excuse for it. That this is one instance where they can “turn their Christian Switch off” and be just as petty, vengeful, and hurtful as everyone else. That this is one sin that God will just overlook or even doesn’t care about.

This is nothing new to human history. The Bible has instances of people who had that “one thing” they either tried to slip under God’s radar or hoped he would ignore. There was Balaam, son of Beor, in the Book of Numbers, who was warned by God not to utter a curse against Israel yet continuously hoped that God would “change his mind” so that he could get a reward from the king who was summoning him for that very purpose. There was Achan, son of Karmi, in the Book of Joshua, who ignored the ban that God had placed on the city of Jericho for none of the Israelites to take any of its valuable possessions for themselves when they conquered it and hid some of it for himself. There was King David who, as mentioned before, was considered one of God’s most devoted adherents that constantly relied upon him for all things in good times and bad, and yet still tried to “sneak behind his back” in his affair with Bathsheba.

As far as the New Testament is concerned, there is the story of the rich young man who was the would-be follower of Jesus, who came to Him asking what he needed to do to inherent eternal life only to end up called out on his own “one thing”. Not as popular but also noteworthy was Ananias and Sapphira in the Acts of the Apostles, who tried to keep “one thing” from God (namely a bit of personal property).

None of these stories ended well. Balaam’s sin in an attempt to subvert God’s command (namely by inciting the Moabites to tempt Israel into idolatry) led to the death of many Israelites (Numbers 25:1-9) and eventually sealed his own doom (2 Peter 2:15; Joshua 13:22). Achan’s own sin caused the death of 36 of his kinsmen and led to his own death soon after (Joshua 7:1-26). King David’s reign and family ended up cursed for his own sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:1-15). Ananias and Sapphira have the distinction of being two of the only individuals God struck dead on the spot in the New Testament for their own withholding (Acts 5:1-11). As for the rich young man who went to see Jesus, eventually he sadly gave up his own chance at salvation, because he couldn’t bring himself to give up his own “one thing”—namely his wealth (Matthew 19:16-22).

For many of these individuals, their incidents of sin not only left the longest legacy of their lives but is often what history remembers them the most for, in spite of whatever goodness or righteousness they might have done. And the same thing has happened to other historical figures and people we ourselves may know or remember. Michael Vick, Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey, Rosanne Barr, Eliot Spitzer…among many, many others. In spite of how much service or how much good or right they may have caused in their lives, it’s their sin…their one thing they couldn’t get rid of…that destroyed their reputations. And even if they do manage to leave a good legacy behind, the sin these people did or the one thing they did that was immoral will likely cast the shape of history’s or society’s view of the rest of their lives.

This is a good example of the corruption of sin, and illustrates why God has such a “no-tolerance” standpoint toward it. Sin has a corrosive effect. It stains and erodes whatever good we try to do, and twists and ruins us such that it becomes what stands out about us far more than any of our attempts to serve God and others. It’s corruptible not only in the life to come but right now in the present day, and the longer it goes unaddressed and unconfessed the more it ruins and taints us.

Lord Jesus told us that the greatest commandment was: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’” (Matthew 22:37, but see Deuteronomy 6:5). Note that it doesn’t say “with just most of your heart, with almost all of your soul, and with the majority of your mind”. Nor does it say “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…except for that one thing”. God wants all of us. He doesn’t want anything to be “off limits” or in some sort of “Christian-free zone”. It’s not enough to simply give most of who we are and most of our lives over to God and continue hanging on to the one sin. We have to turn it all over if we wish to be followers of Christ. And this isn’t nearly as straightforward or simple as most of us would like to think. As the example of the rich young man demonstrated, it might just be the most challenging thing about being a Christian. It requires a daily commitment and conscious self-reflection to have a chance of making progress toward it.

My prayer for all of us today is that we don’t all end up similar to Twilight Sparkle and only be an “almost Christian” or a “mostly Christian” or an individual who adheres to the Bible for everything except our own “one thing”. Instead, let’s all take the time to look at our lives long and hard, identify if there is a part of it that is a “God-free zone”, and then work on turning that over to him as well.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for constantly reaching out to me with a call to repentance, so that I constantly have the opportunity to draw nearer to you and become more like Christ. If I am still clinging to a sin or disobedience, please confront me with the truth of it no matter how difficult or painful it may be, and grant me the strength and courage to relinquish it and repent of it, so that I might fully live up to your greatest commandment. This day I choose to once again serve you with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”