The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy. The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes. God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree.
God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.
There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure. Otherwise, how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool? Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work; then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin. These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray. Accept them when I place them on the morning altar, O God, my Altar-Rock, God Priest-of-My-Altar.
Psalm 19:7-14
The Law?
God’s word, my sweet sisters, a light for my feet and a lamp on my path, illuminating. But this “law” stuff? Where does it fit on our journey of freedom? Is the “law” for today or what? I go back to thinking about Abraham. Did he have a rule book that showed him step by step what he must do to please God? Did Abraham have a twenty-year plan mapped out with objectives and milestones he needed to accomplish along the way as he launched his career as “Father of our Faith?” Where was his checklist?
Unfortunately, Abraham had no map, roadside assistance, or Google. He had delays, interruptions, detours, and failures. Abraham did not do everything one hundred percent by the book because there was no book. He for sure didn’t live without doubt, sin, or despair. Abraham kept going. He followed God, confessed, prayed, and believed. God was alive to Abraham; God was the center.
I feel it’s the same for us. We don’t live by faith by reading a rule book. We are traversing up this hill and have no idea what lies behind each boulder. But yet, we press on. We know we are on a journey of freedom, and God wants us to live the ultimate free life. We have no clue.
Abraham did not do everything one hundred percent by the book because there was no book.
Any formula that prevents failure also prevents freedom. We are free to fail. We believe what we believe, and that nudges us to continue to put one foot in front of the other. Yes, we trip, but we get up again. Why? Because we know God cares who we are, He knows us. We dare to believe that God is the reality beyond and beneath and around all things, visible and invisible, and that He provides for us, loves us, blesses us, and saves us.
For 430 years, there was just God. Pioneers of faith knew this, trusted this, and lived according to it being just God.
Any formula that prevents failure also prevents freedom.
Why the law? Is it useless in this life of faith? Is it a contradiction to God’s promises? It’s like a parking lot full of directional arrows guiding us, providing navigational suggestions to ensure a proper flow of traffic. It would be utter chaos in a crowded parking lot if everyone did as they saw fit. But the arrows serve a purpose. They give us clear direction. The law always points to a relationship with God, providing insight into how we live in the presence of a God who blesses, redeems, and creates right relationships. The law points us in the right direction to the personal divine center of all life.
The law only becomes an obstacle when we reduce the act of coming to worship God to a small-minded ritual of following the arrows. Imagine the parking lot with its delightfully painted arrows. The people are driving their cars slowly and carefully, obeying every directional arrow, coming into the lot, and going out again, following it all to the letter but never getting out and going inside. In following the rules completely, we’ve missed the point. It’s what the Galatians did in Paul’s day and what so many churchgoers do today. We can’t cure them by getting rid of the arrows, only by demonstrating the free life of faith and using the law that delivers us to the place of faith, to Christ.
So, my sisters, realize that on this road to freedom, we are not free from failure but free to fail. We are unfinished. On our journey, the arrows point us to one reality, and that reality is God at the center. There we live by faith and failure, faith and forgiveness, faith and mercy, faith and freedom. We do not live successfully. Success imprisons. Success is an unbiblical burden stupidly assumed by prideful people who reject the risk of living by faith. Let the notion of perfection go and journey boldly into the unknown.