The Art of Hanging Out is the deliberate choice to relentlessly pursue knowing and loving God as your first and highest priority . Jesus was crystal clear about this . He said the greatest command in all of Scripture is to love God with everything that is in you . So your highest calling is not to make a big impact with your life or to use your gifts to be a blessing to others or to raise a great family or be generous with your money . Those are noble and worthy desires . But your highest calling , your top priority , is to have a loving relationship with God .
A . W . Tozer , in his classic book The Pursuit of God , writes , “ Come near to the holy men and
14 women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God .”
You can feel the heat that Tozer describes in the words of the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:7 – 8 :
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ . What is more , I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord , for whose sake I have lost all things . I consider them garbage , that I may gain Christ . ( NIV )
I don ’ t know about you , but I really do want there to be that kind of spiritual heat and passion in my life . The spiritual heat Tozer talks about