Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength: getting the focus right

According to Jesus, the greatest commandment is to love God:

The most important commandment is this: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD your God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:29-30)

If that is the greatest commandment, then how do we live it?

It is easy to get caught up in the words "heart, soul, mind, and strength" -- working to figure out what each part means, exactly. There is some wisdom to be gained there if we notice: the ultimate point is that we love God with everything we are and everything we do. If we say to ourselves, "Heart, soul, mind, strength -- but it doesn't say eyes" we've missed the point. If we figure out the difference between soul and spirit, but don't love God with them, we have missed the point. "Heart, soul, mind, strength" is meant to emphasize that it's everything.

It is easy again to get caught up in the fact that "everything about us" should love God, to consider ourselves in each aspect. Then we lose sight of the fact that loving God is supposed to be about God, not about ourselves. When we study what it means, "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength" -- it means that everything about us should be focused on loving God. Love is about the one who is loved.