This past summer, I worked at a camp where I was a leader for 44 eleven-year-olds. One night all the leaders went out for a night off, while other adults watched the kids for the night. Later we found out that the kids misbehaved and tried to break all the rules we had set for them. I was furious. We talked about it as a leader group, and I asked to speak to the kids that night after dinner. I prayed about it that I could forgive them and speak to them compassionately. Something strange happened as I was explaining to the children how upset we were with them for breaking the rules we made for them–I began speaking words I hadn’t prepared. It was if someone else were speaking, and I just happened to be opening my mouth. What I told the children was this: “We don’t make up these rules because we think rules are fun and we like making you miserable. We make these rules for your own safety because we love you. We want everything to be fun and safe, and we make rules because we care about all of you, and when you break those rules, it hurts our feelings.”
What a novel concept. Rules are out of love? It took being the legal guardian of four children for a month, and the leader of 44 of them for me to learn that good rules come from a place of love. However we grow up with the guidance of faulty humans, who sometimes make rules for selfish reasons. We learn that breaking these rules means negative consequences. Well, with a child’s mindset, abiding by rules means avoiding consequences; therefore, abiding by God’s rules means avoiding fiery pits of hell. Is that your only motivation for being a Christian? To avoid the pits of hell?
I’ve been praying a lot these past couple months for the Lord to open the eyes of my heart to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and what God has to say to me (Psalm 119:18 and Ephesians 1:18). A couple weeks ago, He reminded me of that day I told the children that we made rules because we loved them, and it was like the biggest light bulb of my life clicked on. I remember I was working and driving down the road, and alone in the car I yelled to myself, “HE TELLS US WHAT TO DO BECAUSE HE LOVES US! HOLY CRAP!” My mind started spinning out of control. Perhaps others have realized this much sooner than I have, but I took a gigantic leap in my walk with God, and I’m dying to share it with everyone!
The Lord does not give us a set of rules in order that we may work for heaven. He gives us a set of rules because he made this life and he knows how it works. He gave us ways to live correctly so that we may have good lives. Not good as in good versus evil, not good as in we get to go to heaven because we were good, not good is in we escape flames of hell; good as in bountiful, as in an incredible life. He gave us phenomenal lives where we get to love other people, where we get to see the wonder of his majestic creation! We are NOT REQUIRED to abide by these rules, but if we love and trust God enough to say that He knows best, then we follow His rules for more wonderful life.
I cannot humanly comprehend how to have the best life possible. God, however, made me. He made the world. He created this life and then told us exactly how to live it, and we turn back and look at Him and say, “I know better than you. I can do this without you. I’m smarter than you.” When we break God’s rules, we are actually telling the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE that we are SMARTER than Him.
God knits us together from birth and hands us instructions on how to live, which we toss in the trash, and then turn back to Him and ask why our lives are screwed up. We break the rules and we say it’s ok because God will forgive us, but these rules are not for God’s benefit they’re for the human race. God gave us rules to make our lives better.
Christianity is not a prison; it’s a freedom. We have guidelines on how to have the best life possible and yet we so often just push it aside and say it’s okay because I’m forgiven. These rules are not set up so that we know how to avoid hell; they’re set up so we don’t make our own hell on earth. If everyone followed God’s instructions on life by loving Him first and others second, we wouldn’t just be avoiding hell, we’d be bringing heaven to earth.
