Half Baked

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

Jeremiah 29:13 (NLT)

Have you ever seen a job that was done only half-baked? I have. Many times. Mostly because it was me. In particular, when I was a kid, I hated yard work. So, when it was time to rake the leaves, for example, I would run out and try to rake them up as fast as humanly possible so that I could just be done with it. The problem was that in my rush lots of details were missed – mainly leaves. I would rake up maybe half of them – enough that I thought my dad wouldn’t notice. Basically, it’s like the little kid that doesn’t like their dinner, so spreads it out all over their plate to make it appear that they’ve actually eaten something. There’s lots still there, it’s just been rearranged. Of course, my lack of attention to detail would pointed out and I’d have to start all over again with the instruction to make sure I got every leaf.

Sometimes, our approach to God is also half-baked. We tend to approach God with only half-sincerity. “Hey God, can you get me out of this mess?” But, just this mess, not the rest of the mess that you see but I’m blind to. In our hurry, or desperation, or lack of belief, we only want God to interact with small portions of our life, not the whole thing. Here’s the problem with that, God gave us His everything, and we owe Him our everything.

As the prophet Jeremiah stated in our verse today, “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” In other words, don’t seek after me in a half-baked attempt to prove or disprove my existence, my power, or my love. You’ve got to go all-in. Our requests of Him shouldn’t be limited to “Jesus help me…” and then only allow Him access to one area of life. (Though, there is value is talking with Him about specifics.) Rather, we also need to ask Him into every facet of our life – social, cultural, career, romance, friends, finance, and every life-choice. We can’t just limit Him to only our church-life. That’s a half-baked way of approaching God.

Today, and every day, approach God with your whole-heart, your whole-life. Invite Him in and allow Him to lead, to heal, to love. Stop treating Him like a job you hate, and instead take joy in the journey you get to take. Praise Him for what He has done, and praise Him for what He is going to do. Invite Him into every aspect of your life. Whole-heartedly seek Him. When you do, you will find Him.