This is my life.

For those sitting in the back, this is not a Bible, as you might suppose. This is my Day-Timer. In it can be found each day’s appointments, a schedule of upcoming events and even an address book for calls I might need to make. All of that is helpful, but the real purpose of my Day-Timer can be found in my daily "to do" lists. There I record the tasks before me each day—sermon preparation, hospital visits, phone calls, Harried with Children class preparation, and so on. Each day, as I accomplish these tasks, I check them off—a sign that at least something has been accomplished.

But over the holidays—as I sat with Joan preparing my non-work to-do list—I noticed something strange about my language. I found myself speaking in terms of "need." "I need to get the oil changed in the Sable. I need to get the Taurus inspected. I need to fix the hole in the fence. I need to paint Owen’s bedroom." Like many others, maybe even you, I used the word "need" to describe what I wanted to accomplish. That word is interesting because "need" is something that is necessary, required, an obligation. It assumes there is some compelling force, some coercive power—be it personal or cultural—that demands, dictates what must be done. To say I "need" to do something suggests one does it because one must.

As I have thought about that language of need, I’ve noticed how widespread it has become. I overheard a woman say she "needed to go to work." A youngster, nearing the end of his Christmas break, said he "needed to get ready for school." A couple of friends mentioned that they "needed" to go by HEB on the way home. The language they used suggested that they were compelled, obligated, forced.

Now all of this would be just a mere, obscure curiosity except for the fact that this same language shows up in conversations about our spiritual lives. Not long ago I was talking to a young man who had been reared in the church but had dropped out when he went away from home. When he found out I was a pastor, the first thing he said was: "I need to go to church more often." Similarly, someone asked me not long ago about devotional materials. "I need to read the Bible more," she said. And another said she "needed" to get her offering in to the church. All three used language that suggested obligation, necessity, requirement—as if being forced to do these things.

The question we might ask is if the language of "need" really conveys the nature of our relationship with God. Is the nature of our relationship with God one of obligation, compulsion, requirement? Do we do what we do as Christians because we "need" to do them? Do we have somewhere in the back of our minds the idea that we have to go to church or read the Bible or be nice to people to either appease an angry God or earn points toward God’s favor? I fear that we do.

But the Christian life is not based on what we "need" to do. It is rooted in something far more important. It is rooted in what we want to do to honor God. The difference between the two approaches is significant.

Let me offer an analogy. We have two children. We could easily say that we "need" to take care of them, and we would be correct. The law demands it. The culture expects it. We are obligated to make sure they are fed, clothed, and cared for. But do you tend to your children because you "need" to or because you want to? You do it because you love them, want the best for them, honor them by serving them.

And the same is true with our relationship with God—as Jesus showed us.

John the Baptist was the last in a long line of Hebrew prophets. And he did what prophets do—he called upon the people of Israel to turn from their sinful, self-centeredness and to God and right lives. To mark the change, John told the people they needed to be baptized, to have their sins washed away in the River Jordan. And people responded. All sorts of people recognized their sinfulness, sought to right their lives with God, and waded into the water.

But then along comes Jesus. He too wants to be baptized, but John recognizes a problem. The baptism John offers is for the forgiveness of sin; and John knows Jesus is sinless. John offers a means for connecting to God, he knows Jesus is already connected, is already God. There is no reason for Jesus to be baptized. He doesn’t need it. He’s not obligated to do it. It is not a necessity. And John says so. "You don’t need to be baptized by me," he says. "I need to be baptized by you."

And he was right. But Jesus is not driven by what he "needs" to do. He is driven by what he wants to do. And what he wants to do is to "fulfill all righteousness." Now that is a strange term to our ears, but put simply it means that he desires to do what God desires for him to do. He wants to respond to God, to do God’s will, not because he must but because he can. While he didn’t need to be baptized, he wanted to be because that was what he could do to fulfill God’s intention for him. The motivation was not "need" but "desire."

That difference marked Jesus’ life. One of the most powerful scenes in all Scripture is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He has gone there to pray after the Last Supper and before his arrest. He is in agony—knowing that soon he will be arrested, tortured, crucified. He doesn’t "need" to do it. He has the power to walk away, to stop the unfolding drama in mid-act. But Jesus is not driven by "need," by some "obligation" to God. He is driven by the desire to do what God wants done. That is why he can pray: "Lord, if it be your will, take this cup from me, but your will, not mine, be done." That is why he can go to the cross.

The desire to honor God rather than a "need" to appease God drove Jesus.

"But Don, how do we get to such a place? How do we get past the language of ‘need’ and on to the language of ‘desire’?"

We do so by recognizing what God has done for us.

Robert Webber is a professor of theology and worship. He has spent the largest part of his adult life going to churches and observing what it is they do. As anyone who has ever gone to an African-American worship service knows, such services are unlike anything we experience in the Anglo church. They are filled with energy and joy. They bubble over with the desire of the people to honor God.

No doubt, part of that is cultural. But Webber suggests there is something more—something theological. Virtually every African-American worship service includes a recounting of God’s mighty deeds in history. The preacher will stand before the congregation and say:

• There were the children of Israel in bondage to Pharaoh, making bricks without straw, crying out for God to deliver them, and God sent Moses to bring them out and lead them home.
• There was Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego in the fiery furnace and God showed up and delivered them.
• There was Daniel in the lion’s den and God showed up and delivered them.
• There was humanity, drowning in its sins, but God showed up in Jesus Christ and delivered it.
• There you were, captured by your self-centeredness, but God showed up in Jesus and set you free.

Week after week after week, the people are reminded of what God has already done for them. They are reminded of life given and grace received. They don’t "need" to worship God; they want to worship. They don’t need to give; they want to give. They don’t need to learn more; they want to learn more. Their deepest desire is to honor the God who has already done so much.

Maybe the key for us to move beyond the language of need is to remember what Christ has done, what is celebrated week after week after week at the Lord’s Table, what is written in Scriptures. Maybe the key to wanting to worship, prayer, study and give rests in recognizing the grace we have already received.