Show Thyself...please

God matters.

The older I become, the wiser in spirit.  I think it's supposed to work out that way!  Well, I just don't get where I've been or where I'm going sometimes...especially when I allow others to inflict me with more rules. 

How many warnings are there in the Word about making senseless rules?  Yet mankind keeps making them.

When I look back over my lifetime and view the spiritual walk, I am first thankful that I was able to accomplish all that I did...though not always in such an organized and accurate way as I would have wanted.  And occasionally, I even cringe at some of the things I taught others when I was younger.  I had all the rules down.  And I passed them on sometimes.

Perhaps it was when my Mom died, and I spoke at her funeral that I really became aware of the dangers of making 'rules' for God...explaining God...interpreting God...anticipating God...answering for God (in His physical absence)...playing God?  I could hardly figure out how to explain my Mom, much less God....in fact, my talk that day began with the words, "How does one describe the life of another...?"

There I stood at the minister's podium, in a very conservative church, just above the casket where lay my Mom.  A place where I grew up but was now a stranger, as I left many years ago so many of the teachings of my youth.  And I spoke of her and of her life.  And I saw tears in the eyes of some when I mentioned that Mom had spent her entire life of almost 91 years unsure that she was saved.  Feeding the hungry; helping heal the sick; encouraging the broken hearts around her; denouncing sin; reading and writing over and over the scriptures precious to her.  Did you get that?  Unsure, at 90, that she was OK with God.  Oh, how could it be?  

I believe it was her religious training...from birth to death...she believed it to be inappropriately presumptuous to know...only God could know.  And her God was keeping it a secret.  

Oh, but God didn't keep it a secret!  Mom's circle of faith people, especially her ancesteral heritage, allowed her this status of extreme humililty.  Nothing good enough; nothing big enough; nothing wise enough; nothing spiritual enough to allow my Mom to freely accept what God offered.  

And on top of the sorrow I felt was added a tinge of resentment.  How dare anyone not assure Mama of her salvation.  I tried, but I was 34 years younger and never her equal.  She seemed to think that sooner or later, I would understand, as she did.

But 'later' has arrived, and I'm still not in that corner with her...and hope never to be.  But I accept a loving God who knew what to do with Mama when she approached that early Sunday morning when she slipped out of the worn body and into new life.  No more secrets...Mom knows now.

So, now back to my life.  I find that I enjoy a freedom never known to my generation before...speaking of us, the over 65 folks, and speaking of us the 2016 progressive version. Aunt Bea, of television fame was younger than I am today...and hardly active at all outside her cooking apron and some silly girly club.  Her body betrayed her all too early, but so did the writers who gave her the image and the lines.  My body is a liar.  A very BIG LIAR.  But I don't buy anybody's lines or allow them to create my image....Because inside my body dwells a vibrant, significant, sensual, intellectual, spiritual PRESENCE - AND IT'S ME!

I like to be challenged intellectually with studies and conversing; to still dream dreams and invite vision to come along; to kiss and hug and make love; to take stands and dig in if necessary to defend a truth; to explore and accomplish change.  All of life still belongs to ME. No silly aprons or girly clubs.  No fears of being out at night.  No fear of driving wherever I want and however long my road.  No sitting back and thinking I wish I was young again...I AM young.  Every couple of years, my body is brand new...every. single. necessary. living. cell. replaced. by. new. ones!  Some parts of me are replaced in a few days or weeks or months.  What a glorious thing - this beautiful body of mine.  How wonderful any one who has consistently told me I'm beautiful, or cute, or appealing.  I need those truths.

I don't think I have to stretch to say with conviction that God intended us to be vibrant and alive and real from birth to death.  And little did I know, when I was young, that a church or a culture or a persuasion of thought might keep one from having all God intended. But it can happen...like it did to my Mom.

I love this passage from The Message (not accepted by most as a true 'version,' but as an interesting 'paraphrase')....

"So why are you now trying to out-god God, loading these new believers down with rules that crushed our ancestors and crushed us, too?" 

I leave you with this thought....why step back from liberty and freedom, when the source of all freedom and liberty is God Himself.  He made 10 rules; man made the rest.  Who will you follow?  God or man?  And how often must we step back and recalculate the necessities?  Often, I hope.  Those 10 never fail our lives in ways of joy and contentment.  But the rest...well ....

I'd leave them alone unless Jesus spoke them or demonstrated them.

April22,2016