When I was a child, I had a pretty major problem with my sister. You see, although we were both part of a Christian family, my sister had fallen into evil practices. I didn’t think she was a real Christian. What was she doing? She was listening to Christian rock music, rather than to classical stuff!
Fortunately, it wasn’t long until I realised how ridiculous my position was. She was celebrating God; I was setting up my own rules about what made someone right or wrong in God’s sight.
As I write this, I have my headphones on, and am bobbing along to some fantastic Christian songs. The real issue was never about the music, but about my own heart. It was about me trying to put up boundary markers for what a real Christian should be like.
I suspect the temptation to do that is one that many of us know well. And often the things we set up as boundary markers are good things. It is a good thing to attend church on a weekly basis. It’s a good thing to have your theology right (although we tend to argue about who is actually right!) It’s a good thing to listen to Christian music. It’s a good thing to set aside a day of the week to rest with God.
But how easy it is for these good things to become ultimate things. How easy to make them ends, rather than means. What if we so starch the collar of Christianity that we become unwilling to bend when God does something new?
Are we so caught up in the rules, our rules more often than not, that we lose sight of the fact that Jesus is King?
What if God is more concerned with seeing people come to know and enjoy Him than with them fitting into our neat and tidy boxes?
Today’s text: Mark 2:23-3:6
0 Comments