When I first became a Christian, my faith was focussed on making all the correct choices that God wanted me to make. I constantly asked, what does God want me to do with THIS? And it got really absurd how detailed this got. Very obsessive, like one wrong move and I was no longer a Christian.
But over time, my faith changed. I stopped believing that God wanted to make every choice for me. And my focus zeroed in on one thing very specifically.- Relationship.
My relationship with
- Myself, my health and wellbeing.
- My loved ones, my family and friends.
- My neighbors, those who are in my life but who I may not be as close to.
- Those who I may never meet, but who my choices may also still indirectly affect.
- God.
And with that, my life has been spent learning about and creating healthy boundaries that respect us all.
I believe that Love is the Law. To me, the entire Bible comes down to this. Boundaries. Mutual respect. Not causing trouble. Tending to your garden and letting your neighbor tend to theirs. Which means letting our neighbors decude for themselves what to grow or how to grow it, as they also respect us.
Mankind was made in the image of God. And how we treat that image reflects how we feel about God. So to truly love God, we must love the creation His hands have made- especially that one thing most made in His image.
You cannot hate another person and say you love God. And it is not easy to love everyone. That is part of the battle. Getting past ourselves so we can love others like Christ loves us.
All of these other things people bicker about, whether something is or is not a sin, I don’t focus on these things. I don’t need to. I am at peace with someone who gambles, smokes, drinks, speaks profanity- it doesn’t bother me. Nor does it bother me to be around an Atheist, Muslim, Pagan, Gay or Transgender person. Because I am focussing on relationship instead of things that don’t directly affect me.
I believe God cares more about whats going on inside us. All of these psychological games that people play that lead them to do actual harm, to self and others. To me, that is the sin that we need to weed out. That is the broken thing, the trauma that needs to heal.
You can’t be in a healthy relationship with the world around you if you go looking for reasons to hate people or tell them they are not welcome in your circle. Christ welcomed all.
I can’t say if Divorce is a sin. Or homosexuality is a sin, or if drinking a beer is a sin, or if sex before marriage is a sin. Based on Scripture you can argue that they all are.
But back then women were not considered people who had rights. Only a man could divorce a woman. She was left destitute by the act. But not today. Times have changed. Today we are each able to run our lives as we choose even Divorce and survive. We have the capcity for greater control and responsibility.
And some people are gripped by alcohol more easily than others- some lives are destroyed while others go unscathed.
There is so much that we don’t know. And to use scripture to destroy a life… It seems like a waste of Scripture.
My point is, I am not making that decision for people. I am not telling people how to live their lives, what is or is not a sin for them. Not if it does not affect me or harm anyone. I don’t believe it is my place to. And I am not going to go around calling people abominations. Because nothing that I see in Christ tells me that this behavior is acceptable.
Sin or no sin, I focus on well being. I focus on what I bring to the table. And that is how I live my faith.
For me, to seek and save the lost means to allow God to use me and move through me wherever I find myself. I don’t go with an agenda. Words come to me. I follow where the Spirit guides me. With that, I listen- to God, to people, to their pain and their struggles. And.I encourage, strengthen, bare witness, hold them, tell them that God will bring them through it. I speak of what God has done in my life and what I know to be true. I try to offer Wisdom, usually because the ones I am drawn to are going through something similar to what I have come through.
And in this way, I am growing a garden of faith and trust in our Father and His Son.
Jesus does not always come up. Unless He comes up in the conversation naturally. I don’t force it. Some people have been traumatized by the church. I don’t chase sheep away. I bring them to God. I don’t push myself on others because that is not how to be in good relationship with others. We accept each other where we are and leave room for the Holy Spirit to move.
The Holy Spirit knows what the human heart needs to hear. Not all the sins that the religious person can point out. But the thing that will make room for God to move as that heart is drawn to Him. I am piece of a much larger Intention at work in this world, and I play my part.
That is my faith. What is yours?