Claim Jumpers is probably one of my favorite restaurants in the entire world. Their potato soup - delicious! But one of the most rich and yummy things at Claim Jumpers, is their chocolate cake. It has about a million layers of chocolate cake and creamy chocolate frosting. For one person to eat this cake, it would be a miracle. My family of five can't even eat it all together! If the cake had about 999,999 less layers, it would be the perfect size. But it isn't, and as a result, it takes my family and I a very long time to eat through all the layers.
I know that right now, you don't quite understand why my Claim Jumpers story above is quite relevant, but I will heartily explain. I believe there are multiple layers to one's relationship with God, like the layers of the Claim Jumpers cake. For example, let's say the first bite is being brought to Christ. Fantastic! The first bite is just the beginning to happiness! The God of the Universe has sought you out and captured your heart. Congratulations! But what about from then on? What about after God has pursued you?
After the first bite, I believe there is layer number one. In layer number one, we scrape by it, because it's mostly frosting, and we want to get to the delicious, spongy cake, but the frosting makes it difficult. In this first "layer", that's when we read our bible every once and a while, and pray when we feel like it. We're doing the bare minimum to keep our heads above water. We live life almost exactly the same as it used to be, and it's hardly changed since we became a follower of Christ. We skirt by, too busy with the rest of our lives to spend time with our Father. Too busy with our first layer to even bother trying to get to the second layer. Yet how would we know what the second layer is like, if we're too busy being barely content with the first?
Ahhh, now here we get to the more exciting layers. The second layer, I believe, is where life really starts to get interesting. One becomes more serious about their faith. Suddenly reading their bible every so often, just going to church and praying every once and a while isn't enough. And out of the blue, we want more - more more more of God. We read our bibles every day, pray constantly, read books, search theology - we can't get enough of our relationship with the Lord. That, is the sweet spot - that is one of the places where we belong. In the second layer, that's when our relationship with the Creator becomes set in stone, and we feel His presence everywhere. It's layers like these where our hearts are set on fire to serve and to be a part of ministry; to find out the answers to our theological questions; to actually pray to God than talk at Him.
It's hard to break out of the first layer, and delve into the second. From the standby point of the "frosting", it seems like the cake looks too hard to get to, so you should just sit around and stick with your chocolate frosting, after all, it's pretty good - or so that's what Satan wants you to think. Stop enjoying your chocolate first layer, and break through to the second one. Satan's dream is to keep you as far away from God as possible, because you're more vulnerable there than you are without Him. The second layer holds so much more of a relationship with God then the first did. Serving and learning more about the Lord is exactly what God wanted us to do. He wants us to be committed to Him, as a husband is to his wife. God is too good just for frosting!
Here's a good verse talking about commitment to the Lord:
"Commit to the Lord whatever you do , and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3
Breaking out of the first layer is one of the most wonderful things I've ever done. You get out of the sticky, overly sweetness of the frosting layer, and fall into the delicious and wonderful cake layer. And that's only the beginning. Just think...behind that simple frosting layer, is a whole world of Jesus Relationship Cake.
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