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"It is almost like we are hardwired to fight being
under the domination of anyone or anything and want to live free, even when our
idea of freedom can cause damage to us or others around us."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 176.
It's no wonder people can grow to hate religion. How many of us have been turned off by the rules and regulations of a "have to" religion telling us how to get our life right so that we will be more acceptable to this God that made us. Sure we will use terms like hypocrisy and narrow mindedness when it comes to reasons why religion just isn't our thing. What I'm starting to believe more and more that those words are nothing more than a way to communicate a feeling that our freedom is being challenged by religious "have tos" found in so many of man's ways of communing with our God.
You see, religion isn't the problem. It is how we have turned religion into some organized, structured, measurable and marketable thing in our world that has made religion something it should have never been in the first place. The do's and don'ts of religion happen as we try to quantify something as big and unyielding as a relationship with God. Rules and regulations, on their own, can never make a relationship something that it was intended to be. All they do is to make us feel bound up. That's a feeling our souls hate and will fight for all they are worth to get out of our lives.
That's what I mean when I say that we are hardwired to fight being under the domination of anyone or anything that comes against our idea of freedom. We have an innate sense in us that has been put there by God. That sense was put there to warn us when our freedom is in jeopardy. The reality of "Have To" living that comes with the rules and regulations found in so many of our religious activities can work to make us feel trapped and our souls hate that feeling.
Just like religion, rules and regulations aren't the problem. Rules and regulations have to be a part of all our lives or chaos will be the result. It is what we do with those rules and regulations that make it such a dangerous thing when it comes to our freedom and religion.
It is when we think that rules and regulations will do ALL they need to in order to get us right before this God that trouble starts to happen. Rules and regulations do nothing but either drive us away or make us hide more deeply the things the rules and regulations are suppose to be there to keep out of our lives in the first place. That's why God went to such lengths to make a relationship with Him be so completely devoid of rules and regulations - He simply doesn't want the obligations that come with "have to" living to get in the way of a loving connection He so craves with you and with me.
Richard Branson, the famous business pioneer says this about rules, "You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over."
When we rely on rules in religion to try and keep us from making mistakes in our life (also know as SIN), we never really position ourselves to have the mobility God intended for us. Our journey on this earth is really about learning how to walk. We are here to figure out how to walk with this God that made us. Just like a baby taking those first few steps, we have to fall down a lot in order to get our feet solidly under us. Relying on the do's and don'ts of "have to" living does nothing but make us take longer to find our balance and take off into the wide open spaces God is calling us to join Him in.
Let me show you how easy rules and regulations can sneak into our life. Check out this beautiful Bible verse with me and let's dig a bit deeper into how "have to" living can take over our religious actions. Today's reading says,
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 (NIV)
If we aren't careful we can take this amazing verse and make a bunch of rules and regulations out of it. Heck, an entire religion can be started with just the words from this verse. Let me show you what I mean.
If life is all about coming into the fullness of a walk with God like I think it is, then this verse sheds some light on what it takes to make that walk all it can be. Today's reading says we are to do two things to be fully in this walk with God - Act Justly and Love Mercy. Now the trouble can really begin if we start to rely on rules and regulations to make our walk all it can be in this life.
What does act justly and love mercy mean? Ask ten people and I'd be willing to bet you'd get 5-10 different answers as to what this means. What if those answers are different than what you think justice and mercy looks like? What if the people who give you those different answers are more educated and prominent than you are. Now you are in a place of thinking that you "have to" do what they say in order to make your God something that you want it to be. Stay in that place of "have to" living and victim thinking can't help but to be the result.
Look, those 5-10 answers as to what justice and mercy might look like in life aren't necessarily wrong. It is when we try to make a formula out of a walk with God that our hardwired fight for freedom can kick in in ways that make religion so offensive. Unfortunately, we are so quick to throw out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to religion. It is good to fight the "have to" prospects of using rules and regulations to get right with God. It serves us in no positive way at all to toss out a relationship with God based on the offensive way that comes through man's attempts at quantifying what a walk with Him means in anyone's life.
What are you to do today in your walk with God? My best advice is to listen to and for Him. He is speaking to you. He is telling you what justice and mercy looks like for you life right this moment. Listening to Him and applying what He is leading you to do is what makes your walk with Him so powerful and rewarding. Fight for all you are worth to let "have to" principals be any part of your walk with God. Your victor status is in jeopardy when rules and regulations become the basis for your communion with the God that calls you His Child.
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