We’ve had our dog Ruffles for over two years now.  She’s a sweetheart, smart, obedient, and loveable.  Ruffles is a small, almost completely black poodle mix, but she started to resemble a short-legged stuffed sausage.  She was rounding out!  We didn’t have much time to consider her weight gain, though.  Enter Chewie, the puppy.  Chewie is the same breed as Ruffles, but blackish brown with tan highlights.  Everything else about her is completely different than Ruffles. 

I don’t think she’s an entirely smart dog.  She also sticks out her tongue, which doesn’t lend to an intelligent image.  Chewie is a squirrely little thing.  We put up small barricades to keep Chewie out of certain areas.  Those have kept Ruffles out, but not Chewie. 

It took days for Ruffles to get used to Chewie.  The puppy had no concept of personal space, which Ruffles found unacceptable.  Over several days Ruffles learned how to play like a dog again, with a dog.  Now they are best buddies and play quite often together.  Ruffles no longer looks like a stuffed sausage either, but has slimmed down to a shapely doggie figure.

Have you ever noticed that another person can push you to become more than what you thought was possible?  My youngest son is in a summer track program.  He does his best when there is someone just in front of him or coming up behind him.  Then he is challenged to stretch and run harder.

In Deuteronomy 6:5 we are instructed to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength.  How do we love God with all our strength?  Well, here’s where it gets interesting.  The Hebrew word translated as “strength” actually means “very”.  It’s translated other places as very, greatly, exceedingly, and much.  You can see why translators didn’t use any of those words in this case.  It doesn’t make sense!  If we weren’t sure how to love God with our strength, we don’t have a clue how to love Him with our “very.”

The concept behind “very” is that it is more than you assumed.  This word is used to describe the famine during Joseph’s life.  It was very severe.  Take severe and go another step.  Seven years, everyone sells all that they have including themselves as slaves to Pharaoh just to stay alive.  The word is also used two times in a row to describe the promised land.  It was very, very good.  Take what you think is good and go further, now further still.  It took two men to carry one bunch of grapes!  It’s like those fitness shows where they push the contestants to the end of themselves and then the coach tells them to do one more rep.  That’s the idea.

So how do we push ourselves to do more but not become legalistic?  If it’s all about what we do, we either become proud or feel like failures.  This is where last week’s post comes in.  It’s all about identity and who you believe you are.  If you believe you’re a couch potato, you’ll make choices and act like a couch potato.  If you believe you are like Christ, you will make choices and act like Christ. 

Ephesians 4:22-24 – You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

I would dare to say that loving God with our “very” is impossible to accomplish unless we are in community with other believers.  That’s right, impossible.  We are challenged by other believers, not in a competitive sense that displays superiority, but challenged to become our best self, better than we thought was possible.  Have you ever been inspired by someone?  Sometimes it takes the experience of another to spur us on to try something new.  Other times collaboration builds upon basic ideas to create something amazing.  We were created for community.

Loving God with our “very” is stretching beyond what we thought was possible.  Live in your new self.  Be in community.  I’ll end with a quote from my son’s track coach.  “So, remember, when it starts becoming difficult… you can either see that as an OPPORTUNITY for you to get closer to great or an EXCUSE for you to stay comfortable.”

Daily scriptures for your mind:
Ephesians 4:11-32
Hebrews 10:19-25
Hebrews 11:39-12:3
Proverbs 27:17
2 Peter 1:3-9