Sweater or Sweating for What is Worthy

Back in the nineties, if you were serious about celebrating Christmas, you owned and proudly wore a Christmas sweater. There was a certain sweater that had everything from a 3-D, green, embellished Christmas tree to a red ribbon woven around the neckline, cuffs and hem. If I owned that sweater, I thought it would make me look like I knew what I was doing. Unfortunately, it was too much money for me to spend for something that could be worn for three or four weeks a year. 

BUT! Two weeks after Christmas, that sweater was marked seventy-five percent off, and I had a coupon for twenty-five percent off that price. I was thinking that they just might have to pay me to take it off their hands. I went to the store, found it and as I eagerly picked it up, everything changed. My eyes were opened. I suddenly realized that it was on sale because nobody else wanted it!  Why should I buy it?  In the end, I saved money but wasted time focused on something that I thought would make me happy. 

I was reminded of that incident this past summer when I read Romans 9:1-5 where Paul was fervent in pleading with the Jews in Rome to come to the realization that the long-awaited Messiah had arrived. The Jewish people were the chosen people who had the covenants, the law, the worship of the one true God, the promises, the patriarchs and the prophecies. Paul pleaded and begged the Jews to see that the man Jesus, was the prophesied, Incarnate God and that it was not the law that would save them, but the acceptance of the Savior, Jesus Christ. The eyes of their hearts and souls were closed to the Truth of the Messiah and it was breaking Paul’s heart. 

Here are the words that really got to me from Paul’s letter found in verses 2 and 3: 

...I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 

What? Paul’s desire for his fellow Jews to accept Christ as their Savior was so overwhelming that he was willing to lose his own soul if it meant they would accept Jesus! I could almost see the sweat on his brow as he fervently dictated those words to be sent to the Jews in Rome. 

That Christmas sweater came to my mind when I thought of how I have wasted precious time on this earth focused on things that do not matter for all of eternity. But, more importantly, have I ever had that kind of fervent prayer for the soul of another human being? Would I ever pray, “God, if it means me losing my eternal life with You, please exchange my life for ______’s life so that they will be with You for all of eternity”? We cannot pray that prayer because a life has already been given for the souls of man through Jesus, but I am now asking for that kind of focused love for those either around me or for our nation, as Paul did for the Jewish nation. 

Like my shallow Christmas sweater obsession, we can get caught up in so many things that are not at all important. When we all finally kneel before God, will I – any of us – be able to say that we did not waste our sweat and time pursuing meaningless things or will we be able to look around and see the souls of those for whom we fervently prayed with a desire like Paul’s? 

Instead of a garment to wear, please God, give me a heated, sincere prayer for the lost to find Jesus.