Wholly Following – Living a Singular Life (part 1)

We are pondering together what it means to live a life that is devoted to following Christ wholly.   A life so devoted is experienced as we pursue the three-fold path of living a submitted, singular and sacrificed life.  In previous posts, we have considered the call to live a submitted life.  The submitted life is a life that is formed by God with faith as its central attitude of heart.  It creates within us an awareness of soul to promptings of the Hold Spirit, and it is cultivated by the practice of meditation upon Scripture.

Living a singular life is the second of the three dimensions of wholly following Christ.   The call to follow Jesus presents us with a single, integrated, life-defining purpose.  But, in our busy lives, we are so often pulled in many directions.   Our days become fragmented, disjointed and even segregated into various spheres.  We have a “school life” and a “work life” and a “family life” or a “social life” and maybe a “spiritual life” or a “church life.”  These different “parts” of our experience, though, are disconnected.  We lack a unifying flow in our daily walk.

Instead of living our lives in “parts” or “fragments,” Christ calls his followers to wholeness – to oneness.  He calls us to live a singular life. This kind of living is expressed by the words of King David when he wrote:  “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after:  that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple (Psalm 27:4 ESV).   The Apostle Paul also spoke of a similar desire as the central focus of his life’s direction.   “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14 ESV).

So, how are we to go about living this kind of life?  The answer lies in Christ himself.  He forms a singularity in our life in much the same way as we are formed into followers who live submitted lives.  This formation first shapes an attitude within our heart.  It is an attitude of love for God that pervades every dimension of our life.  By his gracious work within us, we begin to experience what it means to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind.  Our love for Christ begins to be the thread that runs throughout each thought, word and activity of our day.  We begin to sense a connectedness within our life.  God’s love becomes the motivating force for each moment.

There is a wonderful example of the singular life that can be seen in a familiar story from the Gospel of Luke.  Jesus comes to dinner at the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary.   Martha was an excellent host and was very busy preparing and serving a meal to Jesus and his disciples.  She was quite disturbed, however, when her sister (most likely younger than her, though we are not told) Mary was just sitting with Jesus listening to him.  Quite indigent, Martha confronts Jesus, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”  By his reply, Jesus exposes Martha as one living a fragmented life, while Mary embodies the life of singularity.   “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”  (Luke 10:38-42)

We are all too often like Martha living lives full of anxiety and troubled about many things. Our eyes, like Martha’s, are fixed on others and their failures to meet our expectations and desires. Christ, though, commends Mary and calls us to follow her by focusing our attention, our love, our desire upon him. Far from leading us to inactivity, such a singular attitude of heart will motivate us to live more purposefully for him in every dimension of our day.