As I worked from home during the particularly cold Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I reflected on the mindset of the children playing in the yard. They didn’t care that it was cold. They simply knew it was time to play. They gladly ventured into the frozen tundra of the southeast Texas wasteland (if that’s a thing…) to play in the falling snow. It seems only right to a child, to soak in all the wonderful wonderment of falling freezing rain…

I’m reminded of the children’s story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The little girl goes through the bowls of porridge until she finds the one that is “Just right” in temperature… The temperature outside was “Just right” for the kids but only for wintertime play. It was not “Just right” for the slip-n-slide despite one of my children requesting to get it out… (face-palm.) In this sense, then, there is a spectrum of relativity in what is “Just right” and what isn’t… 

This gets my wheels turning about spiritual connections. Is there a “Just right” temperature, or passion for discipleship? Is there somewhere in the middle, a perfect blend of worldliness and Christianity? Perhaps, a beautifully balanced life of partial commitment to Christ and partial involvement in the world? We could be passionate about Christ and equally passionate about the world, right? A “Just right” in our commitment, a square in the middle. Not cold, because who wants to be cold in their spirituality? But, not too hot either, because who wants to be one of those overly zealous, uber-passionate weirdos? 

True, we are to live in the world but not be part of the world. There is more to this discussion than that. It is tricky to live in this world and prevent it from worldifying you (not a word, but you know exactly what I mean). We are fooling ourselves if we think that we can be equally Christ-focused and equally worldly. There is no compromise, no partial commitment, and no room for empty conversion. We cannot be “Just right” with one leg dipped through the baptistry but our hearts tethered to the temporal world in which we live. The only way we can be “Just right” is if we strip ourselves of earthly loyalties and allegiances, be completely willing to alienate ourselves from all temporal devotions, and be uncompromisingly faithful in our discipleship to King Jesus. He will take no half-hearted soldiers into His battalion. He will offer no severance package for the soldier ready to lay down arms. He wants you to cast off the world and follow Him. That, dear friend, is what it means to be “Just right” with the Lord; and that is the “Just right” we should be seeking. 

Luke 9:23-27 (NASB): ²³ And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, this is the one who will save it. ²⁵ For what good does it do a person if he gains the whole world, but loses or forfeits himself? ²⁶ For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels. ²⁷ But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”