Tradition, Religion, & Relationship

  A church I had been attending since I was in junior high had been growing rapidly so they decided to try some new things. All the services in the morning were full and so they started a church service on Sunday evenings. I remember the pastor introducing it and quoting statistics of how hard change is for people. My family attended the Sunday night service for a while and out of practice I would get up early on Sundays because it was what I had always done. And not too many people attended that Sunday night service, out of over 1, 000 attendees maybe 70 came to the night service.

Oh the traditions we cling to. Traditions can hold me back, always doing the same thing over and over out of habit. And sometimes it becomes easier to do what you always do, and are comfortable with than to step out in faith. I’ve learned that to simply step out in faith is success in God’s eyes- there is no failure with stepping out.

   

Do’s and don’ts can sometimes make it easier to assess how well you are doing. If you’re clearly following the entire do’s than you must be doing pretty well, and if a few don’ts are creeping into your life than you better fix those quick. At times it can seem easier and quicker to be able to look a list than be led by the Spirit. It’s as if we would rather look at everything in black and white or with absolutes. But I’ve really learned a lot about the spirit of religion that we can all so easily get caught up in. Mark Driscoll says, “Allow people the freedom of conscience”, for me when I do this I am not allowing a list of rights and wrongs to dominant my thinking. Mike, our squad coach, says “it’s not about right and wrong, it’s all about life and death.”