Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Pharisee, Part 2 - Morality and Habit

Some great quotes from Donald Miller:

"The hijacking of the concept of morality began, of course, when we reduced Scripture to formula and a love story to theology, and finally morality to rules. It is a very different thing to break a rule than it is to cheat on a Lover.” In Search of God Knows What

“I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man’s mind into a habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God.” - Blue Like Jazz

The last quote really got me thinking. What is my habit? Can I even ask that question sincerely? Do I have the ability and humbleness of heart to acknowledge that I have a habit that keeps me "wasting time"?

So often I'm concerned with sins and behavior. Many times, I'm concerned with those of others, sometimes with my own. But in my efforts to be "religious" or "pious" or "learned" or "Godly", am I missing the opportunity to examine myself? Who I really am? Who I have become?

Is my faith based on a formula, or a love story? Am I losing sight of who I am; a child of God? Are my efforts, whatever they may be on any given day, stifling my ability to engage God?

One more quote, this one from Mike Yaconelli:

“Nothing makes people in the church more angry than grace." - Messy Spirituality

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Excellent quotes Marcos… Again, these quotes coming from a non-theologian like Donald Miller. For some reason God seems to use these ‘no-bodies’, maybe to show everyone and the high and mighty religious-righteous the simplicity of grace.
He is so right regarding religious habits and wasting time, it is very scary that we may fall in that way, and that’s because it’s very easy to be religious, but it’s very hard to engage God. Why? …Because we have to be honest with ourselves and with Him as well.
It’s like my friend the therapist says: ‘take the monkey off your back, and take a very good look at it’. I love that saying!

Yaconelly was not a theologian either, yet he was wise beyond his years. I whole heartedly recommend one of his last books, Messy Spirituality, it ministered to me tremendously. I’ve come to my own simple conclusion regarding Grace – people that criticize it, have not come the understanding of it, they may have read about it, even dissect the idea, yet they have not experience it.

-Y-O!