The Greatest Thing - Day 5

"Look

If you had

One shot

Or one opportunity

To seize everything you ever wanted

In one moment

Would you capture it

Or just let it slip?" Eminem 

It was the summer before I went away to Bible College. I was teaching about 10 kids in the junior high Sunday School class. I looked at the curriculum and in my deep 19 year-old wisdom decided I could do better. There was nothing wrong with it, just the same cheesy stuff I had seen before. I wanted something better, deeper, stronger. I wanted to make an impact on these kids.

Now that I had rejected what was given to me, I was stuck. I had one month before I was supposed to leave town. What could I possibly teach them in that short a period of time? What would change their lives for the better? If I could only teach one lesson from the Bible, one thing, what would it be? 

There were a lot of good things in there. I had heard so many sermons over the years: a lifetime of Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, Wednesdays, Thursdays, youth retreats, camps, words upon words. How to choose one thing to teach? If I only got this one chance, what would it be? 

John 3:16? Good, but is that THE most important thing? The crucifixion? Very important, but it needs a lot of context. It doesn't mean anything without Genesis. The resurrection is also essential. Otherwise it's all meaningless. Old Testament, New Testament, where to look, so many books, so many lessons. But I needed one thing, the most important thing. How could I choose one thing to teach in a month of Sundays? 

Then I turned a page and I saw it. Somebody had already asked the question. It was a lawyer and he was trying to be sneaky, trying to trip up the teacher. But the teacher gave the answer, the answer I had been looking for. The teacher said his answer was what the whole Bible was based on.

I have a hard time remembering the faces of the kids in the room that day. I don't remember what I said over those few short weeks. But that search to find the most important thing changed my life. It was the first step on a path that would change the way I looked at the world, the way I thought about God, the way I understood the Bible, the way I interacted with believers and non-believers alike. It changed my very definition of what it means to be a Christian. And it all started with that one question. If I could only teach one thing, what would it be? 

More importantly, if you had one chance to leave one idea, one teaching, one thing behind... If your legacy to your children, students, and friends was summed up in one thought... If your wisdom was condensed down to one concept, what would it be?

I'll give you a break. The greatest teacher that ever lived gave a two part answer, you can too. What's your one thing?