Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Do ya wanna come?

I grew up in a rules based circle. Not so much my home, but the church, and school, and the college I attended. At times I found myself on one side or the other of those rules. Some of us, like Hogan's Heros would tunnel out from time to time. Go on a mission, then return safely to those fenced yards. Looking back, I am neither thankful, nor am I bitter against the rules. I just don't know.


Rules make us feel right with God without the need for faith and charity. As long as we are inside the gate, we are safe, we are in right standing with God. We can feel good about ourselves, as we peer over to the other side and point out the train wrecks, the broken lives and shake our short haired, combed over, clean shaven heads. I clearly remember as a young boy of maybe 7 or 8 dreaming of what it would be like to go to public school. To stand up for God against teachers of evolution, pushers of cigarettes, and cursers of God. I longed to get outside the fence, not to involve myself in sin, but to exercise my faith to stand upright in a perverse generation.


Rules make us feel right with God without the need for faith and charity. Yes, inside the fence they feel like Christians, they base their christian life on their ability to fight off the temptation to venture out knowing that to step out of bounds is to compromise one's faith and the feeling of salvation flees.


Rules make us feel right with God without the need for faith and charity but, what if there is another way to feel saved, other than by staying behind the fence. What if I could feel saved as I walked and moved in culture. As I rubbed shoulders with drug addicts and homosexuals. What if I could do all this and feel saved, not by comparing my piety to theirs, but by exercising my faith and charity. Its just a thought. Lets not take it too seriously. After all this virtual monastery is what God intended right?


Rules make us feel right with God without the need for faith and charity, but a couple of us guys, tonight, after the guards make their last headcount and rounds. We are going to tunnel out. We are going to make a run for it. Do ya wanna come?

0 comments: