Lessons from a Story

The other night, my wife and I had the pleasure of the company of Mr. and Mrs. Doyle, as well as of Tom Mohn and his wife, Barbara. They told us their story, or at least a few snippets of it. I learned two things:

1) Those who have learned to discern, listen to, and obey the voice of God do not live boring lives. Their lives are full of moments that people want to listen to when the story is retold and of times that, after telling the story, they can say, "That was a time when God showed us that he is faithful."

This guy had so many adventures that I'm surprised he's not in history books. Some of them are great, exciting things. Some of them are tragic. They all got our blood flowing. His story is full of life.

2) There is nothing that will smother the voice of God in a person's life faster than religion. Rules make the voice of God unnecessary, because I can now be obedient by ticking off boxes, assuring myself that I'm doing it right. It requires no relationship. It doesn't require me to know ANYONE. I only need to know the rules.

And the terrible part is that rules are so much easier. They give me validation. I can know that I'm doing it right. Better yet, I control the situation, both when I follow the rules myself and when I impose them on other people.

This is why so many of us desire to impose rules on those around us... especially young people. Not that I think our students and children shouldn't have rules. But we like to equate the rules with having a relationship with Christ. It's hard to trust God with the ones we care about. So we tell them to follow rules instead of following Christ.

But following Christ makes the rules inconsequential. I no longer do what I do because there is a rule. I do it out of love. That's freedom.
posted by Stephen at 10:49 PM | |