A short bus for the spiritually challenged
Spiritual and moral convictions can be pesky. Just when you think you're okay with something, a conviction can creep into your subconscious and begin to eat away at whatever recent habit or thought pattern has been given too much time lately. Inevitably, the conviction activates the guilty spot in our brain which makes us second-guess some potential wrongdoing that is (or might be) happening.
A bunch of youth from our church just got back from a D-Now weekend. Apparently, the topic was "purity." Though the topic dealt primarily with that ages-old youth-related topic of sexual purity, I think the real meat of what the kids learned was how to examine their lives and determine the things that have crept in that need 'removal.' And I have to admit, it's impressive to see how 'conviction' has taken hold in some of these guys'/girls' lives in a way that's inciting them to make some real changes. Without going into too much detail, I will say this much: More than one person walked away changing some signficant things about their lives. And believe me, I mean that in a good way (as far as I could tell, none of them developed a 'holier-than-thou' attitude towards their own spirituality; they simply want to better their spiritual lives).
...
So now, I'm thinking...
And I can't help but admit that I'm a 34-year-old male who's allowed all kinds of stupid stuff into my life. Small habits have become big, bad, nasty ones. Name the issue: Anger, foul language, illicit conversations about things that probably shouldn't be the subject of illicit conversations. What else? Materialism. Gossip. Etc. Etc.
This is hard to talk about without going into a lot of detail, but maybe this will make sense:
Though I love the amount of freedom and lack of legality I've found in a real relationship with Christ, I have to wonder sometimes whether or not that freedom is often perverted as an excuse to say/do things that are simply not appropriate for someone who should be about following Christ.
Is it okay to laugh at really crude jokes? Is sexual innuendo appropriate during conversations? Is yelling at the a**hole who just cut me off in traffic just a natural way of venting anger? At what point does exercised freedom become sin? You know, that's a very difficult question to answer.
Right here, right now...is not the time to deal with these individual things (true examination of these things is not simply a 'quick' answer that's so easily spouted by so many). Rather, I just want to be thinking about it. The real question is, "What things do I allow into my life that have no business being there?" To be honest, I don't want to look at my life with that much scrutiny. Who would? After all, I will most certainly find things that are detrimental to my spiritual walk as well as my emotional well-being and even my physical health, right?
...
If you evade legalism for so long (which, honestly, can only be a good thing overall), I can see how it can become increasingly easy to have our desire for 'clean hands' and 'pure hearts' fade over time. After all (in my church circle), we want to reach the unreachable....people not accepted in other churches. I want to feel comfortable around people who struggle with everything from depression to sexual orientation issues to drinking/drug issues... I want them to know they're not judged. I want them to know that they're loved by God and God's love for them is not something withheld until they get their lives in order.
At the same time, I don't want to get so caught up in 'connecting' with people that I allow things to thrive in my life that could only damage my own 'connection' with God.
Make sense? I'm not talking about that cheesy, legalistic pursuit of holiness so often found in churches today. You know, "Thou shalt not drink." "Thou shalt read thy Bible 10 times a day."
Nothing like that.
Just a real effort to determine where impurities - things that cause 'disconnect' with God and with others - have entered my system...and learn to filter them out.
...
If I can watch a teenager who's spent a weekend thinking about purity realize that her relationship with her boyfriend is detrimental to her relationship with God... if I can watch her come home and make a very tough decision to break off the relationship with that boyfriend...
Then I ought to be able to have the cahoneys to look at the things in my life and allow conviction to move me to make changes, too.
I tell you...it's humbling to not feel as much passion for my own purity as a teenager who's only spent 3 days talking about it is.
A bunch of youth from our church just got back from a D-Now weekend. Apparently, the topic was "purity." Though the topic dealt primarily with that ages-old youth-related topic of sexual purity, I think the real meat of what the kids learned was how to examine their lives and determine the things that have crept in that need 'removal.' And I have to admit, it's impressive to see how 'conviction' has taken hold in some of these guys'/girls' lives in a way that's inciting them to make some real changes. Without going into too much detail, I will say this much: More than one person walked away changing some signficant things about their lives. And believe me, I mean that in a good way (as far as I could tell, none of them developed a 'holier-than-thou' attitude towards their own spirituality; they simply want to better their spiritual lives).
...
So now, I'm thinking...
And I can't help but admit that I'm a 34-year-old male who's allowed all kinds of stupid stuff into my life. Small habits have become big, bad, nasty ones. Name the issue: Anger, foul language, illicit conversations about things that probably shouldn't be the subject of illicit conversations. What else? Materialism. Gossip. Etc. Etc.
This is hard to talk about without going into a lot of detail, but maybe this will make sense:
Though I love the amount of freedom and lack of legality I've found in a real relationship with Christ, I have to wonder sometimes whether or not that freedom is often perverted as an excuse to say/do things that are simply not appropriate for someone who should be about following Christ.
Is it okay to laugh at really crude jokes? Is sexual innuendo appropriate during conversations? Is yelling at the a**hole who just cut me off in traffic just a natural way of venting anger? At what point does exercised freedom become sin? You know, that's a very difficult question to answer.
Right here, right now...is not the time to deal with these individual things (true examination of these things is not simply a 'quick' answer that's so easily spouted by so many). Rather, I just want to be thinking about it. The real question is, "What things do I allow into my life that have no business being there?" To be honest, I don't want to look at my life with that much scrutiny. Who would? After all, I will most certainly find things that are detrimental to my spiritual walk as well as my emotional well-being and even my physical health, right?
...
If you evade legalism for so long (which, honestly, can only be a good thing overall), I can see how it can become increasingly easy to have our desire for 'clean hands' and 'pure hearts' fade over time. After all (in my church circle), we want to reach the unreachable....people not accepted in other churches. I want to feel comfortable around people who struggle with everything from depression to sexual orientation issues to drinking/drug issues... I want them to know they're not judged. I want them to know that they're loved by God and God's love for them is not something withheld until they get their lives in order.
At the same time, I don't want to get so caught up in 'connecting' with people that I allow things to thrive in my life that could only damage my own 'connection' with God.
Make sense? I'm not talking about that cheesy, legalistic pursuit of holiness so often found in churches today. You know, "Thou shalt not drink." "Thou shalt read thy Bible 10 times a day."
Nothing like that.
Just a real effort to determine where impurities - things that cause 'disconnect' with God and with others - have entered my system...and learn to filter them out.
...
If I can watch a teenager who's spent a weekend thinking about purity realize that her relationship with her boyfriend is detrimental to her relationship with God... if I can watch her come home and make a very tough decision to break off the relationship with that boyfriend...
Then I ought to be able to have the cahoneys to look at the things in my life and allow conviction to move me to make changes, too.
I tell you...it's humbling to not feel as much passion for my own purity as a teenager who's only spent 3 days talking about it is.
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