Do Things WITH the Lord, Instead of FOR the Lord

A Reading from the Gospel according to Mark
     One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
     "Which is the first of all the   commandments?" 
     Jesus replied, "The first is this:
     Hear, O Israel!
     The Lord our God is Lord alone!
     You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
     with all your soul, 
     with all your mind,
     and with all your strength.
     The second is this:
     You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
     There is no other commandment greater than these." 
     The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
     You are right in saying,
     'He is One and there is no other than he.'
     And 'to love him with all your heart,
     with all your understanding,
     with all your strength,
     and to love your neighbor as yourself'
     is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
     And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
     he said to him,
     "You are not far from the kingdom of God." 
     And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

I live a vicious cycle of wrongly making the spiritual life a complicated checklist in efforts to please God and to earn His love and His favors. Similarly, I often fall into the trap of viewing God as a conditional lover. IF I pray a rosary every day, THEN God will notice me. IF I go to daily mass a few times a week, THEN God will heal my brother. IF I am on a million ministry teams, THEN God will repay me by gifting me with whatever I want. Clearly, this is incredibly distorted and not who God is! Rather than diving into the reasons why I might believe these lies, I’d like to explain my remedy of how I get myself out of this pit and into reality. To ground myself in the truth of who God is, I recall the most impactful piece of advice that has radically transformed my prayer life:

“Do things WITH the Lord, instead of doing things FOR the Lord.” (Beth Davis, Blessed is She).  

This quote is so powerful to me because it paints God as my best friend, not just a friend. I think the main difference between a best friend and a friend is that I default to doing anything and everything WITH my best friend, while I often do things FOR my friends. For example, if I’m having my best friend over for dinner, we’ll be cooking together, as part of the fun. They’ll be standing next to me in the kitchen chopping, stirring and laughing their butt off when my smoke detector inevitably goes off...again. They probably even went with me to the grocery store beforehand and bantered with me about which brand of spaghetti sauce to get. On the other hand, if I’m having just a friend over for dinner, I will prepare and cook everything before they arrive, and I’ll likely even set the table with a decorative placemat. Sometimes activities with friends can feel a little staged, or a little too amicable. While that’s not necessarily bad, as not everyone can be your best friend, it’s the small, raw daily moments with a best friend that I enjoy the most. In other words, I’d much prefer to journey with my best friend, than to be at the final destination with a friend.

It really helps me to love the Lord our God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength when I view Him as my best friend, instead of wrongly viewing and using Him as a vending machine. It helps me to imagine Jesus doing daily activities right beside me, like folding clothes, loading the dishwasher or even driving. In what small, daily moments can you invite the Lord in to be your best friend? Lastly, in your own life, are there any “burnt offerings and sacrifices” that you are offering only FOR the Lord, instead of offering them WITH the Lord? 


SOURCES/RECOMMENDATIONS:
What should I *do* for Lent? // teachable tuesday with Beth Davis

• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfJDrQH1yA4 
• Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/teachable-tuesday-what-should-i-do-for-lent/id1365854664?i=1000506666564 

About the Author: Therese Arceneaux was born and raised in Baton Rouge and currently works as a GIS Analyst (which is a fancy title for making maps). The Lord has most notably worked in her life through His perfect timing of pulling everything together at the very, very, very, very, last second. Other than making maps, Therese loves creating spotify queues for road trips, keeping all of her 4891324832 house plants alive, organizing/cleaning, brewing kombucha, glamping and playing trumpet. 
What book are you reading right now? “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey 
What are the top three songs on your playlist? “Hey Lady” by Stephen Day, “Stomp” by The Brothers Johnson and “I Vow to Thee, My Country” by Katherine Jenkins 
What food would you eat every day for the rest of your life? Chicken fajitas and queso from Tio Javi’s 
If you could eat dinner with anyone from history, other than Jesus, who would you eat dinner with? Gutzon & Lincoln Borglum, sculptors of Mount Rushmore 

Learn More About Red Stick Catholics

The Well is a weekly reflection series from Red Stick Catholics that was created to allow young adults from the Diocese of Baton Rouge to reveal how God is speaking to them through prayer and Scripture. Each reflection contains the upcoming Sunday’s Gospel, a reflection written by a young adult from the Diocese of Baton Rouge and prompts for how to pray with the Gospel and reflection during the week.