ON THE VANGUARD

WHATAYA WANT FROM ME
“’In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.’”
Luke 14:33

American Idol used to be one of my favorite reality shows to watch. Back when it was first fresh I would watch it religiously. I knew who the contestants were and involved myself in the snippets of their back stage life. My intrigue, or infatuation of the show, finally subsided a few seasons back as I realized I was more concerned with the show than with other details of life. However, I can still name the winner and runner up of each season, as well as pick them out on the radio when I hear them. With all that said, as I was in the car driving this weekend I heard Adam Lambert’s, Whataya Want From Me playing on the radio. As I sang the words I knew along with Adam, I began to think about the song’s title.
My son and I have had fun with the song, changing some of the words around. Our favorite spoof is to sing it as a boy getting his lunch money taken from him. The boy says, “Whataya want from me” to the reply by the bully, “All of your lunch money.” But listening this time, and trying to sing louder than the radio, I found myself singing these lyrics as a question to God. I belted out, “Whataya want from me?” It didn’t take long to hear in my heart a response that cut right to where I was at as God sang back, “I want your everything.”
My ‘everything’? I’m not sure God knows what He is asking sometimes by asking for my ‘everything’. Surly God knows who I am when no one is looking and knows those little pieces I struggle with that I try to hide under the carpet when company comes over. And I am pretty sure that God has seen the mess I make in so many areas of my life. True, I do have my good moments and characteristics, but I am embarrassed to give Him my ‘everything’. How about I just give God the good parts instead? However many times I try to barter this idea with God, He always responds the same way. He wants it all.
Giving God all is not as easy as the church song makes it sound. “All to Jesus I surrender…” sounds like it is just a happy and pretty thought. How hard is the real action, though? I would venture to say that the reason God keeps asking for our all is because we are unwilling to give it. Yes we give parts to Him and surrender what we think will please Him, but we never give it all. It’s almost the same way we view obedience and honesty. We obey some rules and we tell some truth. But isn’t partial obedience still disobedience, and partial truth still a lie? So then let me submit to you that partial surrender is not the giving of our all to Jesus and fits in this same line of thought.
Do you remember what happened to Abraham when he gave God his everything? The promise God gave to Abraham was that he would be the father of many nations. After Isaac was born, though, God commanded him to sacrifice his son (Gen 22:2). Now it wasn’t that God suddenly became stupid and forgot that Abraham had only one son, but that God wanted to see if Abraham would give his everything. And Abraham did; he held back nothing. He laid his son on the altar and had the knife ready before God interrupted him and commanded him to stop (Gen 22:10-11). Abraham was willing to go all the way in complete surrender to God which allowed him to not only be named the father of faith, but also the father of nations.
This testimony of Abraham’s willingness to surrender reminds me of a response Jesus gave to those following Him in Luke 14:25-33. As the large crowds were following Jesus, probably so enamored with him that they were chanting their allegiance to Him, Jesus spoke to them and explained the meaning of being His disciple. In the end, He explained that being a disciple of Christ means being willing to give up everything one has. These followers, like us, believed they were doing it right in how they were following, but Jesus set the bar a little higher. Instead of just hitting the average marks, He told them He wanted it all. And why not? Didn’t Jesus soon after give His all for them when He laid down His own life?
Adam Lambert’s song could have been written with any variety of lyrics to follow the question, but in my singing this song as a duet with God, I received only one response back. “I want your everything.” As hard as it is to give, it must be given. To truly be a disciple of Christ we must give Him our all.