So, from Friday on, I was pretty much “off the grid” and all the headlines blew up. It’s been interesting catching up.
Usually, I like flying under the radar and being inconspicuous. I don’t do bumper stickers, yard signs, tattoos, or green / blue / red / rainbow Facebook profile pics. Now that I am once again serving in professional ministry, I sometimes feel pressure (from myself) to have an “official opinion” about stuff. So, here’s mine:
I decided a long time ago that God does not call me to be the morality police to this world. I think we are specifically called to (1) love God, (2) Love our neighbor as ourselves, (3) make disciples, and (4) announce the presence of God with those who need to hear it. We were never given the job of being prophets, proclaiming the ways in which we think others violate our understanding of God’s laws. That’s hubris. Plain and simple.
Instead, I am called to do things like love others and seek mercy and justice. That kind of sucks, because that’s a lot harder to do than telling other people that I think they are full of crap.
I choose to try to give others my love and respect to my fullest potential. I choose not to seek ways in which I tell others how they are violating God’s laws when I fail to meet God’s standards of excellence on a regular basis by merely existing.
I choose Love. I choose Love no matter whom you choose to marry. I choose Love because Love was given to me unconditionally and I have no choice but to respond accordingly (Which again, kind of sucks, because I’m not that good at it).
One day, I will have to face the creator of the universe and answer for the way I have conducted my life. It won’t be pretty. Like Job, I may have to face the crushing power of the infinite and declare that “I have uttered what I did not understand.”
But also like Job, I hope that I will be affirmed for questioning things that seemed unjust and unfair in this life. Because if God looks at me in the end and says “I didn’t want you to choose Love. I wanted you to judge the world and hold it accountable to rigid legalism and poorly understood ancient writings,” then I’m going to have to say “Well, that’s some bullcrap, right there.”