Fill'er Up

As a small girl, I remember my grandparents pulling into the gas station and the attendant coming around to papaw's window and asking him what he would have. Papaw would reply "fill'er up", and the attendant would proceed with pumping the gas, checking the oil, and washing the windshield.

We have come a long way from those day. Things were so simple then. The simplicity was not just imagined or seen through a child's eyes. Things were genuinely simple, from sitting on the porch while friends, family, and neighbors would visit and pick music until way into the night. Things were slower, conversation was an art, and life was savored. The simple pleasures of life were not missed. People were not so self involved.

God created us with a need to be loved and to love. He created us to draw to him for our true fulfillment. The problem is in our fast paced "progressive" lives we fail to see the things that truly matter. Our focus tends to be inward, but we were created for our focus to be on God and then others.
Matthew 12
29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Look at this for a moment, if our focus is on HIM, we do not have time to “nurse” our own selfish ambitions. And Jesus goes one step further to command that we love others as ourselves. The truth is that it is a rarity these days for anyone to look beyond themselves. This is why divorce is rampant, suicides, addiction, depression...and the list goes on. If we would prefer others, and place their needs first, our dissatisfaction becomes obsolete.

We all need to be fulfilled, but what is filling you up? Are you looking to another outside of your marriage, are you numbing yourself with drugs, alcohol, pornography, sex, or food? Are you diving so deeply into your career that the busyness masks the loneliness?

It is not up to our spouses or families to fulfill us. Fulfillment will never be found at the bottom of a bottle...True fulfillment will only be found in obedience to this the greatest command. And if we love God with an unbridled passion, we will desire to seek Him and to spend time with him. As we reject the temptation of placing ourselves before God and others, we will find the true satisfaction that we all crave.

So pull on up to the pump, roll down the window and smile. When God asks "what do you need?" allow Him to “fill'er up”.