Loving God More Than Tacos: Wednesday in the Word

Are we loving God more than tacos? I don’t know of many Christ claiming people who would hesitate to answer that yes they love God more than tacos. But maybe we should hesitate a little more and really look at the question objectively.

We love a lot of things in this life. Our favorite tv show gets our love. The new pair of shoes we purchased on sale gets a declaration of love. We love tacos. And we love God.

Love encompasses a wide range of feelings. I hope the way I love a pair of shoes is different than the love I have for my friend which should be different than the love I have for my spouse.

Knowing this, it should come as a no brainer that loving God should be more than loving tacos. But stick with me for a minute.

Though there are rare exceptions, everyone can agree on tacos. We may add different toppings, use different shells, and spoon on salsas with different levels of heat. But put a taco on our plate, and we’re going to eat it.

We even set aside one day a week specifically for tacos. Taco Tuesday. Great invention. One day out of every seven to make sure we get our recommended weekly allowance of tacos. Some are more diligent to keep taco Tuesday than others, but we all know about it.

We have a special holiday once a year, that while the theme of the day isn’t specifically tacos, we use it as an extra reason to have a taco. And if Cinco de Mayo falls on taco Tuesday, we know everyone is going to talk about it. And if everyone is talking, we know we’re going to have a craving by noon and a trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant to pick up dinner on the way home.

Yes, we don’t limit our taco intake to Tuesdays. If a coworker suggests ordering tacos for lunch, we’re game as long as our bank account has a few dollars in it. And if we have a craving for tacos, we’ll give in and have a taco before the day is done.

Now consider how we sometime live out loving God in our lives. We give God one day a week as His. Our weekly dose of God comes each Sunday at church. We may worship in slightly different ways. Some may be more diligent in keeping the Sabbath than others. But we recognize it as God’s day.

Twice a year, we have special holidays celebrating God. The Sundays surrounding Christmas and Easter have some of the most attended services of the year. Even those who don’t personally focus as much on  the real meanings of the days may find themselves in the seats of a church at Easter and Christmas.

And then there are those days we have a God craving. Either something so amazingly wonderful happens that we pause to thank God for the gift, or something happens that shakes us to our core. In desperation we cry out to God. We crave His help, His direction, His strength. And we turn to Him to satisfy these cravings before life returns to normal and the hunger for what He can give us fades away for a time.

This is not loving God more than tacos. It’s loving God the same way as a taco. We’re called to more. Matthew 22:37 NASB says, “And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'” And we do it because God first loved us. The lengths God went to for us demonstrates His love for us. In light of His great love, how can we keep from loving Him back?

And not just with taco type love. With all-encompassing love. Love that gives Him our heart, soul, and mind. Love that says, “I am yours.” Love that allows the Holy Spirit inside us to change who we are, how we act, how we speak, and what we prioritize in our lives to reflect God in our lives.

I fall short of this so often, but I pray each day my love for God grows a little bit more. That when others look at me they see a person really loving God in how I live.

Maybe we should stop to consider it more often. Am I loving God with more than a taco type of love? Are you?