Rules.

I have been challenged recently by a friend on some fairly "set in stone" , "basic common sense" type guidelines I held in my own life.  Growing up in church, we all learn some extra rules and think nothing of it.  I'm someone who always understood rules in general as things meant to keep us safe.  I found it easy to follow rules because they made sense to me.  Go outside the rules and you'll find a negative consequence.  Easy.

As I've gotten older, I have come to realize that specific rules aren't even really necessary if you understand the underlying principle.  I remember when I was helping out at my old elementary school while in high school and they had just switched over to the "Make your day" program.  They threw out the long list of rules and whittled it all down to just one.  "No one has the right to interfere with the learning or safety of others."  Simple, but I think it really covers everything.  This new rule got me thinking.  Isn't that really the bottom line?  Isn't that why we make specific rules for ourselves?  It all comes down to acting in a loving manner.  Don't hurt people and allow them their freedom to do what they need to do.  It's fair.

I look around our culture and notice how many stinking rules we have!  Why? Because people aren't able to police their own lives very well it seems.  Too many people walk around thinking only of themselves and hurting others in the process.  Jack wants Joe's iPod, so he hits Joe over the head and takes it.  Inability to govern himself to act in love.  We are drowning in rules around here!  It's like slavery.  Don't do this, don't do that, one person screws up and ruins it for the whole crowd. Aren't we tired of this?

I was reading Kris Vallotton's book Supernatural Ways of Royalty today and I came across this same concept again.  This quote stood out to me.
          "I am against governmental structures that react out of fear to the abuses of leadership..."
I began to think about our rules.  Every time there is a school shooting, there is a big push to make more gun laws.  Reacting in fear as if more laws would help when the shooter already broke a handful of the laws already in place.  Instead of dealing with the real root issues of why people shoot up schools, we make more stupid laws that never fix the problem.  It is a useless and expensive process.  We constantly punish people who break the law, but how often does anyone stop to address why they broke the law in the first place?  I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge that hurting people hurt people.  It's the theme of so many movies and tv shows, I'm certain that it's no secret, but who is trying to help them?  Make more rules, punish more people.  Is it working?  I don't think so.

So back to my initial statement about the challenges in my own life, my friend pointed out to me how I was also making rules for myself based in the fear of messing up. Specifically in the arena of boy/girl relationships, there are a lot of basic rules in a church setting.  They have put up a lot of boundaries to try to keep kids from sleeping together.  Side hugs, no boys in your room, no dates alone, no kissing... the list goes on and on.  My friend made me see that it is a fear based response to the possibility of sin and an ignorance of the roots of sin.  Anything that is based in fear is not of God.  Perfect love casts out fear, so if you're walking in that perfect love with Jesus, you don't have to be afraid of mistakes, or sin.  It is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us free.  If two people truly honor one another, no sin will be committed, and if you're in a relationship where you can't trust yourself or the other person to do that, I would suggest you not be in that relationship, because what is the point without love and honor?

Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't be careful, we all have areas where we are weaker and it is wisdom to put up some guardrails, especially if the consequences of a fall are big.  I'm saying that we don't all have to have the same guardrails.  I'm saying that we shouldn't live in fear of mistakes.  God loves us, He knows our heart, and that is what matters.  Are you being stupid and just trying to get away with something wrong because you know God forgives?  Then your heart probably isn't right and that's another issue.  But if you just slip and fall, God is right there to pick you up and help you out.  The intention of the heart needs to be love, and as we learn to hear God's guidance more and more, we worry less and less about falling into temptation.  His love and grace is what enables us to have victory over sin.  Rules are just more bondage.  He wants us to live in freedom.  He came to save the broken and lost.  He doesn't expect us to be perfect on our own, He just wants us to join Him on the journey called life and to do our best to live in love.