I can't really claim to be an expert of sorts. I'm not a theologian. I'm not a parenting guru. Until recently, I've managed to kill all plant life in my keep - no kidding. (I'm just thrilled that tiny green strawberry buds are peeking out from our little garden this year. This...this...is a miracle.) I'm not known for my cooking skills, and I'm a newbie frugalista. All in all, I'm not that impressive.
However, I do have a few thoughts now and then, and today I'm thinking about freedom.
What kind of freedom?
Not freedom to go "girls gone wild" on the world. I'm not endorsing irresponsibility. Not Fourth of July and fireworks displays (although highly entertaining and lovely). And not the "Free Love" hippie movement of the 60's. The freedom I'm talking about is freedom in Christ. Freedom to live out my life in the way that God created and designed for me to live. Freedom to love.
I Corinthians 10:23-32
"Everything is permissible" - but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible" - but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. Eat everything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience' sake - the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God.
What this means to me is that I choose to do certain things and abstain from certain things, not because I am afraid that God will smite me dead for being ungodly, but for the benefit of my brothers and sisters. Other's salvation and well-being should be more important to me than what I do or don't do. And I deeply long to live this out with a sweet spirit. God has given us freedom, and if we embrace it fully, we may become the most irresistible people on the planet.
There is no room for selfishness in this kind of freedom. This is what makes following Christ so challenging, not all the rules and regulations that seem to bubble up when people hear the word "Christianity". Following Christ means we lay down our own rights for the rights of others. Treating our neighbors, our friends, our families, our enemies, the way in which we want to be treated. That's some tough stuff when you get down to it. It means I don't live for myself, but I live to love and serve others. And it is only by the grace of God that I can do this at all.
Fear tells us that we don't need God, because God will only tie us down and make us miserable. "Needing" God is weakness, and we don't want to be weak. So, we wrap up in thick layers of self-sufficiency.
Fear tells us that the only way to stay on God's good side is to follow a man-made mandate on how to live a life pleasing to God. If you step outside of this moral code you are being selfish and worldly. So, we envelop ourselves in belief systems that give us do's and don'ts that promise to ensure our eternal security. (Galatians 5:4 "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.") This type of "Christianity", by the way, is the very thing that turns so many unbelievers off to God.
Fear breeds extremes - one direction or another - and neither extreme does anyone any good. However, freedom - true freedom - produces a fruit that even the most hardened sceptic can't ignore. Galatians 5:22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control."
True holy living, I believe, is clinging completely to Jesus. Holding him close and allowing him access to hold us closely to his character. Holy living is walking in the freedom and beauty of God's most precious law: the law of love. If we could only capture in our hearts and minds what this really, really means, there would be no doubt that following Christ is the only satisfying way to live.
"How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing...it is irresistable. If even 10% of the world's population had it, would not the whole world be converted and happy before a year's end?" - C.S. Lewis
I want to be irresistable. I want to be the real thing. I want to take the freedom that God has given to me, by grace, and walk in it with a sober awareness that this freedom to love is the same freedom that will lead others to Christ.