Side Dish, Dessert, or Main Course

If you buy one book this year I encourage you to purchase Weird by Craig Groeschel. Not only is this book an easy and entertaining read, but also with a foundation in biblical teaching it is a message to many of us are missing. I am not going to summarize the book for you, because I don’t want to ruin it for you. This Sunday as I was listening to the presented message two points stood out to me.

Matthew 22: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”³⁷ Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. Jesus said the greatest and first commandment is simply to love God more than we love anything else in our lives. I want you to think about Dinner. What do you spend the most time eating? Which part of the meal is the largest? What part is the best? Which part could you leave out? Now let me give you my answers. I spend the most time eating the main course. It is the largest part of my meal. I enjoy Dessert the most. I could leave out the side dish which is usually veggies of some kind.

A meal is an analogy for my life. Dessert is the part I save for last and enjoy the most. The main course is where I spend the most of my time. The side dish is all the things I feel that I have to do, but may not enjoy doing. So the question that needs to be asked is how does God fit into this? Is he the main course, the best part, or a piece that you feel obligated to add to your busy life. If God is the main course he is the center of all things. If he is the dessert he is the truly joyful part. If he is a side dish your relationship with him is not what it should be. Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well

Now I love dessert, but man cannot live on dessert alone. If I eat only chocolate I will have a lot of energy that lasts a very short amount of time and then I will be cranky and tired the rest of the time. The main course can be rich and fulfilling. There is nothing like your favorite food to brighten your day. It is filling, fulfilling, you feel energized and restored after eating it. The bible says: Luke 4:4But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” The word of God will be your main course. John 6: 35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst If you come to him in hunger God will satisfy the longing of your soul.

So here is the hard part. I know what the main course should be. I know what comes first, but am I doing what I need to? Am I fulfilling the purpose of my life or am I living with only dessert or a side dish. God can’t come second. God cannot be a side dish. If Sunday is the one time you worship God and you don’t think about him for the rest of the week then you are living a side dish kind of life. If at the end of a long day you meditate about God for a few minutes and feel uplifted and rejuvenated for a bit you are using him as dessert. If God is the center of your life, and you would give it all up to serve him better then you have found the main course.

Going back to the book I recommended. Where I come from normal people don’t give up everything to become missionaries of God. Normal people don’t go to church more than one time a week. Normal people would rather be watching tv than praying. Where I come from people use the Lord’s name in vain, they say things like God hasn’t done anything for me so why should I do anything for him, and they turn away. Where I come from normal people live lives that are empty, and that is terrible. I don’t want to be empty. I don’t want to live with just chocolate and veggies. I need the main course. Normal doesn’t work.

What if the key to happiness is just stop trying to be like everyone else. Can’t you see how unhappy everyone else is? If we look to the word of God we find people who were happy in the most unlikely circumstances. Daniel found peace in a lion’s den. Paul worshiped and praised God in prison. Noah survived the flood on an ark full of animals. If you step outside of what is ordinary and do weird things in the name of God you will be rewarded. The only way to do this is to get on with the main course. If we put God first and never look back he will change us in ways we never imagined! Don’t be complacent, take a step back, look around you, and if you don’t like what you see its time for a change!

Jeremy Camp sings a powerful song with just this message:

Have you been walking on a surface that’s uncertain
Have you helped yourself to everything that’s empty
You can’t live,
This way too long,
There’s more than this,
More than this

Have you been standing on your own feet too long
Have you been looking for a place where you belong
You can rest,
You will find rest

[CHORUS]
Let this old life crumble,
Let it fade,
Let this new life offered be your saving grace,
Let this old life crumble let it fade,
Let it fade

Have you been holding on to what this world has offered
Have you been giving in to all these masquerades
It will be gone,
Forever gone
It will be gone,
It will be gone