In looking forward to the solar eclipse tomorrow, I began praying for what lesson the Lord would have me to learn from this physical phenomenon.  Here it is:  God wants my whole heart.

Living in the Memphis area, I found out online that I could stay home and experience a 93% eclipse and I thought, “Great!  93% is awesome!  Why would I drive 3 ½ hours to get a total eclipse?  That is not worth the trouble!”

Well, read what Dan, an eclipse chaser, had to share on the Eclipse 2017 website in response to a woman who wanted to know if it was worth driving to get to totality, rather than staying at the 98%:

“I know you are not wanting to do the move, but there’s really no way I can in good conscience tell you that the experience of a 98% partial eclipse will be remotely comparable to being in the path. Seeing the corona, experiencing that last second extinguishing of the light, seeing stars in the middle of the day, and the overall impression of totality, are not things that it is possible to describe.

If you see a 98% partial eclipse, then the maximum coverage the Sun will get is about the same as what someone in the path will see about 2 minutes before totality. The crescent won’t shrink, you won’t see Baily’s Beads, it won’t get really really dark. The best I could say is that you will get a feeling of some eerieness of the light, and the temperature may drop a couple of degrees. Your shadows on the ground will get a bit sharper. The real thrill of a total eclipse, outside of totality itself, is those last 5-10 seconds when the Sun completely disappears. People literally lose it when they experience that, and that experience will not be yours even 5 miles outside the path. 98% sounds like a lot, but it’s kind of like being at a restaurant – if you’re just outside the door, it SMELLS really good… but only the folks INSIDE are actually eating. …

Totality is awe-inspiring – literally the most wonderful thing your eyes can see. I know it sounds like evangelizing, and I can’t make the decision for you, but I will tell you that if you go (and the weather is good), you will not in any way be disappointed.”

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I fear that I’m too often content with giving Jesus my 93%, or my 98%.  It is not worth the trouble, the loss of comfort, to give Him my all.  It reminds me of a song my kids learned when they were little that goes like this: “Do you have a whole heart, a half heart or no heart at all, to give to the King when you hear him call?”

If God is not Lord of ALL, He is not Lord AT all.

He doesn’t want to be one of many gods. He will not share His glory with another.  He wants it all and He deserves it all.

He wants my whole heart.  He wants to have full, total, preeminent significance, power and prominence in my life (type in “eclipse definition” in Google and check out the definition of eclipse).

He wants to eclipse my whole life.

Which reminds me of our ONE THING women’s retreat coming up September 22-23.  I’d love you to come!  Click here for more information.

TWIG