Max Lucado - Give It All to Him

Give It All
to Him

Give It All
to Him

A STORY OF NEW BEGINNINGS

MAX LUCADO

2004 Max Lucado. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Compiled by Troy Schmidt.

Published by W Publishing Group, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee 37214.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Other Scripture references are from the following sources: The Contemporary English Version (CEV) 1991 by the American Bible Society. Used by permission. The King James Version of the Bible (KJV). The Message (MSG), copyright 1993. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. New American Standard Bible (NASB), 1960, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. The New Century Version (NCV). Copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The New King James Version (NKJV), copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. The Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT), copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. J. B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition (PHILLIPS). Copyright J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lucado, Max.
Give it all to Him / by Max Lucado.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-10: 0-8499-4478-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-8499-4478-9
1. ConversionChristianity. I. Title.
BV4921.3.L83 2004
242dc22 2003024237

Printed in the United States of America
06 07 08 09 10 OPM 13 12 11 10 9

CONTENTS

CARRYING
THE WEIGHT

The woman flops down on the bench and drops her trash bagbetween her feet. With elbows on knees and cheeks in hands,she stares at the sidewalk. Everything aches. Back. Legs.Neck. Her shoulder is stiff and her hands raw. All because ofthe sack.

Oh, to be rid of this garbage.

Unbroken clouds form a gray ceiling, gray with a thousandsorrows. Soot-stained buildings cast long shadows, darkeningpassageways and the people in them. Drizzle chills theair and muddies the rivulets of the street gutters. The womancollects her jacket. A passing car drenches the sack andsplashes her jeans. She doesnt move. Too tired.

Her memories of life without the trash are fuzzy. As achild maybe? Her back was straighter, her walk quicker...or was it a dream? She doesnt know for sure.

A second car. This one stops and parks. A man steps out.She watches his shoes sink in the slush. From the car he pullsout a trash bag, lumpy with litter. He drapes it over his shoulderand curses the weight.

Neither of them speaks. Who knows if he noticed her. Hisface seems young, younger than his stooped back. In momentshe is gone. Her gaze returns to the pavement.

She never looks at her trash. Early on she did. But whatshe saw repulsed her, so shes kept the sack closed ever since.

What else can she do? Give it to someone? All havetheir own.

S uddenly one day we notice that our step has lost its spring. The sky has lost its blue. Our memory book has faded, its pictures yellowed and blurry. We didnt plan for this. It just happened.

Thats when we look down and notice something in our hands. A trash bag filled to capacity. Or maybe two, both of them bulky and cumbersome. Who handed us this? How did we get it? And how do we get rid of it?

You dont find bags of trash selling well on eBay. Nobody wants garbage. We all have plenty in our own lives, and we, too, are trying to find ways of getting rid of it.

You may not understand where the load came from or what to do with it, but you know one thingcarrying all this junk around cant be good for you.

The Pelicano is the worlds most unwanted ship. Since 1986 she has been the hobo of the high seas. No one wants her. Sri Lanka doesnt. Bermuda doesnt. The Dominican Republic turned her away. So did the Netherlands, the Antilles, and Honduras.

The problem is not the boat. Though rusty and barnacled, the 466-foot freighter is seaworthy.

The problem is not the ownership. The owners have kept the license current and taxes paid.

The problem is not the crew. They may feel unwanted, but they arent inefficient.

Then what is the problem? What is the reason for years of rejections? Waved away in Sri Lanka. Turned away in Indonesia. Rejected in Haiti. Why is the Pelicano the most unwanted ship in the world?

Simple. She is full of trash. Fifteen thousand tons of trash. Orange peelings. Beer bottles. Newspapers. Halfeaten hot dogs. Trash. The trash of Philadelphias long summer of 1986. Thats when the municipal workers went on strike. Thats when the trash piled higher and higher. Thats when Georgia refused it and New Jersey declined it. No one wanted Philadelphias trash.

Thats when the Pelicano entered the picture. The owners thought they would turn a quick penny by transporting the rubbish. The trash was burned, and the ashes were dumped into the belly of the boat. But no one would take it. Initially it was too much. Eventually it was too old. Who wants potentially toxic trash?

The plight of the Pelicano is proof. Trash-filled ships find few friends. The plight of the Pelicano is also a parable. Trash-filled hearts dont fare any better.

I wonder if you can relate to the Pelicano. Are you unwanted at the dock? Drifting farther from friends and family? If so, you might check your heart for garbage. Who wants to offer dock space to a smelly heart?

Life has a way of unloading her rubbish on our decks. Your husband works too much. Your wife gripes too much. Your boss expects too much. Your kids whine too much. The result? Trash. Load after load of anger. Guilt. Pessimism. Bitterness. Bigotry. Anxiety. Deceit. Impatience. It all piles up.

Trash affects us. It contaminates our relationships. It did Cains. He had anger in his mind before he had blood on his hands. And Martha? Martha was meddlesome in her attitude before she was quarrelsome with her tongue. And what about the Pharisees? They killed Christ in their hearts before they killed him on the cross.

Mark it down. Todays thoughts are tomorrows actions.

Todays jealousy is tomorrows temper tantrum.

Todays bigotry is tomorrows hate crime.

Todays anger is tomorrows abuse.

Todays lust is tomorrows adultery.

Todays greed is tomorrows embezzlement.

Todays guilt is tomorrows fear.

Todays thoughts are tomorrows actions. Could that be why Paul wrote, Love... keeps no record of wrongs (1 Cor. 13:45)? Let trash on board, and people are going to smell it. The troubles for the