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BY PASTOR BRANDON YOUNG
An accessory is an object or device while not essential, adds to the beauty, convenience, or effectiveness of something else. It’s a thing of secondary or lesser importance. We have all added accessories to our cars or to our homes. They may look nice, but we can do without them. The engine, however, is essential. Essential means that something is of the utmost importance and necessity. We will not go far without a working engine in our automobile. Jesus is definitely essential, but we often treat him as if He is only an accessory to our lives. Jesus is woven into the fabric of all we do and who we are. He is not an accessory that will fit in one area of our life. He is not an add-on. He is essential and we must understand the difference.
Drew Larson said, “What’s the difference between a haircut and an amputation?” It’s a real question, though not an entirely serious one. Of course, amputations cause more trauma, pain, and ongoing life debilitation than your standard perm or frosted tips. But in both cases a part of our body is cut away. When we say “my hair,” we mean it no differently than “my hand” or “my leg.” It may be less “our body” in technical definition, but certainly not in our perception. Which means that a haircut, on the whole, is a bit like a very low-grade amputation. No wonder children cry during their first one. But a big difference between the two does remain. There’s no phantom pain from a haircut in the same way as with a lost limb. Why? Because our limbs are connected with our brain in a way that our hair isn’t, of course. Unlike limbs, hair has no pain cells, no nerves, no muscles. It grows back. Despite both being parts of our body, our mind recognizes hair as “inessential” — useful, perhaps, but not of vital importance — and our limbs as “essential.” It understands that hair is an accessory. Getting a haircut never feels like cutting away something essential. It’s certainly nothing like an amputation. But cutting Jesus out actually is. When you settle for Jesus as an accessory, you amputate yourself from the source of what you actually hunger most for: the sometimes-hard, always-worth-it renovation of your whole self into glittering, radiant new life as God intended it.”
Jesus proclaimed in Luke 14:25-33, “And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it. 29Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. 31Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? 32Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. 33So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus let us know that he must be more than an accessory. He must be our everything! We must forsake all to follow Him. He must be more important to us than our mother, fathers, sisters, brothers, or our children. He must be number one in our lives. The foundation of a home is much more important than the shutters. Without a solid foundation, the house will fall, and the shutters will not prevent the demise. I want to challenge each of you to make Jesus an essential part of your life, marriage, and family! Allow Jesus to be the foundation on which you build your life!
(Brandon Young is pastor of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton)