So, can you live with the door open? I know the staunch Rules People will say, "It will never work to not have rules!" All I can say to that is, "Ummm.....and your way IS working???" Maybe our idea of something 'working' is what we've gotten wrong? Honestly, I don't think there is some certain 'way' we can stick people into and they will come out as uniform, holy little Christians, there's just not! We'd like to find a way, but I don't think we ever will.
This is the place where I come to and I get stalled. I know this stuff in my head but I still cling to the idea that life would be so much easier lived amongst a group of people who dressed just like me and thought just like me. I'm beginning to believe, though, that the Kingdom of Heaven has a lot more variety than I ever imagined. Truthfully? I think the Kingdom of Heaven is a lot messier than our tidy little list of church standards has ever let us believe possible.
It is true that what is in the heart is what comes out. It is also true that what I see on the outside of a person that looks wrong to me may not be wrong at all to God. God works with us as individuals. Some truths that He has shown me, He may not have shown you and vice versa! We all have our places where we can learn something new - if only perfect people get to Heaven, there's not going to be anybody there! But I will be the first to admit that it's hard to rid oneself of the judgemental attitude. Hard to sit in the Sunday school class and listen to the "fancied up" lady make the spiritual comments and think something besides "Really? Seriously??" as I look at what, to me, looks like sure evidence of where her heart has gone far astray... And it's hard to be different. To be the mom who watches her children in the crowd and prays "Oh please, don't let them feel like the odd balls in their plain dresses and shirts...."
I think we often have this attitude of "Well they better go to hell for that! I mean, here we are living these chaste, high moral lives and, my goodness! They better not be able to do that and get to Heaven!" I think that attitude is so far from the heart of God. He's not willing that any should perish and I think if I want to have a heart like God I need to change my attitudes towards other people!
So, yes. I think it's imperative that we are able to open the door to the truth. I think it allows us to see the vastness of God's big picture a little better if we can actually open the door and be ok with all the messiness that might create. That doesn't mean I want to run through the door, shedding my traditions left and right as I go! It does mean that I want to be able to be ok with the truth. And the truth, after all, is what sets a person free.
"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much..." Luke 16:10
Amen.
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