As You're Told

I think I have come to a conclusion.  These things don't happen lightly for me.  It takes time and lots of consideration before I can really decide that something is strong enough to rest on.  I used to be much more impetuous about these things, but after seeing so many of my constructs torn apart, I sort of naturally fell into a pattern of reserving judgement.  So I'm talking several years of consideration on this one.

Even then, it could turn out to be false, so I defer always to the truth (dictionary) and the Truth (philosophical), as the case may be.  So ask me in 10 years and I may have walked away from this one.  But I am starting to think it's a sound idea.

This idea is that we each only have to do what God tells us to do.  I know that sounds stupidly simple.  But I mean each of us has only to do what God individually tells each of us personally to do.  Now I'll caveat that God speaks in different ways.  Always revealing in the way that we can best understand.  So, obviously we have to look circumspectly and evaluate and not be foolish about it.  But seriously, I'm not you, nor any one else.  As Jack said, we each only get our part of the story.  So why should we expect them to all match up?

Ok, I can hear the various religious archetypes screaming about it already, so I'll elaborate.

One might argue that we need to rely on the Bible.  We can't just strike out on our own whims!  Yes.  I agree totally.  So you and I can read the same verse and it will mean different things to us.  Who's right?  This argument is too often used to justify a proof-texted agenda.  And of course, everyone knows that your interpretation is actually plain and clear.  I'm talking about everyone else's.  In this case, I can only take what I am hearing from it.  You might get something else.  So my point is made in that you can assume your interpretation is for you and mine is for me.

Well that's just universalism!  No one's wrong, so no one's right!  No, it isn't.  I didn't say everyone would be right.  Just that we are where we are and that God will deal with us individually.  At times we might agree.  Sometimes people might all come together with a similar notion and accomplish some collective goodness.  At times we might not.  At times most of you might be on one page and one of you won't be.  So is that person supposed to defer what's on his heart because the majority, or the "authority" know better?  Or is this a Daniel, Elijah, John the Baptist moment where this one man is to stand against the majority and the powerful?  How could you tell?  If we are each free to act as God tells us, then this will never be a problem.

Well what if we are wrong?  Don't we need the covering?  If we're relying on God to guide us how deceived do you think we can get?  Is God so weak that he'll sit by while any liar corrupts His name and leads those who genuinely seek him astray?  You called on Him because he's able to do what you can't.  Well, time for him to make good, yeah?  Or is he so vindictive that he will point in a direction, leave us to get there on our own, and smite us if we get lost?  Not so!

The more I think about it, the only people who stand to lose from this mentality are the ones who build their lives around getting others to do what they want them to do.  I'm not slamming churches here.  If God told someone to go start a big church and to do it in a certain way, then I'm not going to stand in his way.  God will send the support and workers he needs to do it.  He won't need to coerce anyone.  Just make the need known, share the vision, and do what God's telling him to do.  But just because God told that guy to do what he is doing doesn't mean he's telling me to do it the same way.  And if I am not on the same page no good can come from forcing me.  I'll either do it for the wrong reasons or neglect what I'm being told to do.  This will only harm both causes since someone who doesn't get it can't possibly further your cause, and if I do get it, but am supposed to be doing something else, your cause has become a stumbling block for me.

Any way I look at it, I'm safe if I am responsible only for what God tells me in my heart to do.  He might say it through someone else.  He might split the sky with a debilitating vision.  He might whisper it in the depths of my soul.  He might make it known in a thousand ways.  But if I follow what I am being told to do, how can anyone ask me to do otherwise?  Our role should not be to guard and control people, but to teach them how to hear for themselves.  My problem with authority isn't that I don't want to follow it when I should, it's that you keep trying to be it when you aren't, bro.

Authority and Submission

Wow, this could be a big topic. But I'll try to keep to the point. I have a huge problem with authority. I much more naturally go for the DIY. The thing is, I'm not afraid to do the work myself so that I don't have to rely on the authority alone. Call it a Berean thing. I'm just not going to take your word for it.

But there are some things we can't work out on our own. Some things we just can't know...at least not now, given the knowledge and experience we have at the moment. And there are some things that we have to take on authority. The key to authority though, is trust. That's why I have a problem with human authority. People are fallible. Sometimes we are forced to accept human authority, and I can do this. I don't like beating my head against the wall.

But then there's God's authority and that is a whole different animal. Today, I heard someone talking on the radio about this very thing. In this case there is no fallibility. His authority is not conferred, and therefore can't be questioned. It is what it is. A good deal of being a Christian is coming to understand just how true this is. As the teacher was saying on the radio, how many of us only want to recognize the nice Jesus. Few of us ever want to think about the Lord of lords Jesus. The Captain of the Host. The Master of the elements. The one before whom even rebellious demons bow and obey. Even if we acknowledge this God, we don't often think of what that means for us. This same fierce magnanimous absolute Ruler is our very Ruler. Our Master. This is what being a Christian means. We have enlisted. Accepted that role. Taken our place under His authority. Submitted. So when He tells us to go, we should go. When He tells us to wait, we should wait. And when He tells us to trust, or change, or endure so we should. Regardless of feeling, regardless of ability. When that very same power and authority that spun the universe into motion and knows the path of every quark and particle, the one that routs armies and defeats death, turns His eye on us, how much more should we comply like plastic putty to His will! Especially when that same mouth that erupts flaming power and thunder bends low to kiss us gently and those blazing hands stroke our head lovingly.

In the love and devotion that we feel for our Lover let us never forget that this same is Brighter than any star, hotter than any flame, sharper than any sword, fiercer than any warrior, and is capable of obliterating us as if we never were with the merest inkling. Thank God, His love is as deep as His power is absolute. Fear it, embrace it, tremble in it, and submit to it. In this undoing of the self before such devastating power we are remade in the form that He wishes us to take. Abandon to it and find all that was missing! When He commands my soul, even I can't stand in my way.