“ALL I WANT… IS JESUS”

I can’t believe we’re into the Summer Solstice!  (June 21^st, 1:24 AM). I still have Christmas songs pop into my head every once in awhile!  Every now and then, one of the “littles” who attend our church will show me a loose tooth.  When that happens, I remember the lyrics to a Christmas song, “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth…then I can with you a Merry Chrithmuth”!

I remember the BIG event of losing a tooth – especially the first tooth.  So many stories – my own daddy told my siblings and I to tie a string around the wiggly tooth and then tie the other end of the string to a door handle. Then slam the door.  Somehow that never seemed to work.

I remember losing a tooth in an apple, but the most traumatic tooth experience was losing a permanent tooth in a playground accident. I’ve had an implant ever since.  (I still have occasional “nightmares” that it comes out while I’m speaking, and I need to finish the sermon with a missing front tooth.)

There’s a little fear associated with that first tooth falling out.  There’s some pain involved – especially if it’s not quite “ready” to come out.  Once it’s out, it feels different to move your tongue around in that little space that wasn’t there before. It feels a little uncomfortable.

I think there’s a spiritual lesson to be learned in that simple Christmas tune that has been dancing around in my head.  God has created us to have a longing to be “whole” in Him – to be restored.  Augustine once said, “God has created a vacuum-sized hole that can only be filled by Him.”

Just like the experience of losing baby teeth to get “grown-up teeth”, our old life must be dead before the new life can fully enter in.  There is sometimes pain in “letting go” of the old life and trusting in the new life in Christ which God desires for us.  The new life takes some growing.  The “roots” of the old must be gone.

Is there something God is speaking to you about that you need to “lose” in order to receive the “new” He wants to give?  Our baby teeth were good and served a purpose for the season.  Sometimes the thing we need to “lose” is something that is “good” and served a purpose for a season.  But we need to “lose” that in order to move forward to the “new” thing God wants for us.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all sing with conviction: “All I want (for Christmas) is just more of You”?

There’s a traditional African-American spiritual that was handed down from oral tradition, with its earliest known publication appearing in 1845 in a Baptist hymnal.  It is called “Give Me Jesus”.  These lyrics illustrate a moment-by-moment relationship of wanting Jesus.

“In the morning when I rise, in the morning when I rise, in the morning when I rise, give me Jesus.

“Dark midnight was my cry, dark midnight was my cry, dark midnight was my cry: give me Jesus.”

“Just about the break of day, just about the break of day, just about the break of day, give me Jesus.”

“When I am alone, when I am alone; Oh, when I am alone, give me Jesus.”

“When I come to die, when I come to die; oh, when I come to die, give me Jesus.”

“And when I want to sing, and when I want to sing, and when I want to sing, give me Jesus.”

“Give me Jesus, give me Jesus.  You can have all this world, just give me Jesus.”

I want the cry of my heart – no matter what time of day, no matter what the circumstances are, whether I’m crying or singing, all the way to my dying breath – to be “All I want is Jesus.  Just give me Jesus.”  I want more grace.  I want the “new” – even though a little scary – that He wants to lead me into.  I want more of His Spirit continually bubbling in my soul.  I don’t want to cling to old things that may be blocking the new refreshing spirit to flow uninhibited in my life.

May that be our daily prayer:  “All I want is more of You, Jesus.”

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