My Greatest Goal

By David Hobbs

I have a very deep, emotional goal in my life. “What’s an emotional goal?” you might ask. One that’s deeper than intellectual; one that impacts and draws from the emotions as well as the mind. A mind goal might be to have three children, or graduate from Harvard. An emotional goal, for someone who had a poor and turbulent upbringing, might be to own a house with a white picket fence around the front yard. That would symbolize the peace, tranquility, and stability that was absent from the childhood, and achieving it would bring a satisfaction deeper than words could express.
Since knowing the Lord and getting glimpses of His great love and all he has done to draw me to Himself, my deepest emotional goal has been to be totally poured out for Him--for one moment in time when I could totally fulfill the first and greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mk. 12:30).” It’s funny, but that’s the first and greatest commandment and I haven’t done it yet, and I don’t know anyone else who has either. We can handle the heart and soul and mind and strength part, but it’s that pesky word “all” that throws us!
What would it look like to love the Lord with all of your strength? It would be like a great runner running the marathon and giving his last gasp as he collapses over the finish line. “With all of the heart” would be someone who lavishes all their affection and devotion and attention on the Lord so that the way they feel about their spouse and children and parents and siblings and even themselves is hate by comparison (Luke 14:26). Any takers on that one?
You get the picture. Yet there have been times when I have gotten close: times when I was so moved in my spirit that I was overwhelmed, awash on my inside with the Love of God—when I couldn’t sing sweetly enough, couldn’t shout loudly enough, couldn’t preach strongly enough. I couldn’t quite plumb the depths of my soul and get it all out on the altar! There is a deep, inexpressible joy that comes from being poured out in worship. But there was always a little more left somewhere inside.
That’s where this goal sprang from: someday, somehow, somewhere I am going to find an opportunity and a way to do it--to get it all out. And at that point I am going to hear the Holy Spirit say, “There! That’s it! Every last drop is on the altar!” And my spirit is going to say the biggest “Yes!” that has ever been uttered by mankind. “Yes! Now I can die in peace.”
Sound crazy? It shouldn’t. I come from a family of fanatics. My Father once said of Himself: "For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant (Isaiah 42:14).” And it was said of Him, “When his voice resounds, he holds nothing back (Job 327:4).” He certainly held nothing back when He sent the best He had, the Crown Jewel of heaven, His only Son, to suffer and die for me. Why shouldn’t I have the same frame of mind to want to give everything I have back to Him? Like Father, like son.
My Brother was the same way, you know, my brother Jesus. He had the same love of the Father for mankind. He wept over Jerusalem when it wouldn’t come to Him. He upbraided the cities where His miracles were done when they wouldn’t repent—upbraided them in anger, but an anger fueled by sorrowing, unrequited love.
Jesus had a problem with His disciples. He was having to rebuke and correct them so much that it was hard to show them how much, through it all He still loved them. They knew He must care for them because He didn’t cast them off, but just how much He loved them… He knew they didn’t have a clue.
But He was determined to show them how much He loved them, because He knew it would be the most important revelation they would ever receive. And sure enough, it all fit perfectly into the Father’s plan. “Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love (John 13:1).” There it is. Jesus poured Himself out for us on the cross, showing us for all time the full extent of His love. Right before He died, when He said, “It is finished,” part of what He meant was that the greatest demonstration of love throughout eternity was now completed. Every last drop was on the altar. That’s my Brother!