Christian living isn't about a checklist

Recently, I have been participating in my own experiment. I find it easier to serve God in the busy-ness and task-orientedness that so often fills my own life. In other words, when I ask myself, am I serving God, I can slip into my checklist mode: Church on Sunday. Check. Church on Wednesday. Check. Sang in the worship time. Check. Read my Bible. Check. Gave my tithe. Check. And so on.

The problem is that after a while, the checklist doesn't work. Sure, it gets good things done, but it doesn't move me any closer to God.

And then I heard a sermon about the Greatest Commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Jesus gives the definitive answer on what it means to serve God, and what He said wasn't on my checklist and my checklist wasn't in what he said.

That thought just continued to pound in me. All the Jewish law could be summed up in this one thought: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

The Jewish law was great for checklist people. It was simple: follow these laws and you'll be OK. I think the Apostle Paul was a checklist person. He says himself, "... circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless," (Philippians 3:5-6). In other words, check, check, check, check. But he goes on to say that now he considers all those things worthless compared with gaining Christ, compared with loving God.

Reality is that God never asked for my checklist. I don't have to go to church. I don't have to pray. I don't have to be generous. I don't have to read my Bible. All I have to do is love God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind. That's it.

So that's been my experiment: love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. When God gave this law to the Jewish people thousands of years ago, he told them to talk about it with their children. Talk about it sitting on the couch and riding in the car. Talk about it when you wake up and when you lie down.

So for several weeks when I wake up and when I lay down, when I leave my house, and when I sit down to eat, I have said to myself, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

And I have found that in those moments my attitude gets adjusted. I am closer to God because of it, and, amazingly enough, I want to go to church, give generously, pray, and read my Bible.

And I want to invite you to join the experiment: for two weeks when you wake and lie down, when you leave and when you eat, say to yourself, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength," and see how your life is different.

• Jacob Musselman is the worship and creative arts pastor at Capital Christian Center in Carson City and a member of the Carson City Christian Ministerial Fellowship.