Freedom to soar

When I disobeyed as a child, I would often find myself sitting in a chair or my backside encountering an accelerating wooden spoon. My parents were seeking to mold me and shape me, to teach me right from wrong. They were preparing for me for that day when I would become an adult and live the life I was made to live.

The longer I live, the more I realize that our journey with God is much the same. When we are young in our faith, the law exists to instruct us, mold us, and shape us. It prepares our hearts for a lifetime of living the life we were made to live.

One of the greatest struggles we seem to have as followers of Christ is moving from law-based living to grace-based living. From what the apostle Paul wrote a few thousand years ago, this problem doesn't seem to be new...

“So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.” (Galatians 5:1-6 NLT)

When we continue to live trying to follow the law, we will limit our ability to grow in Christ. If we still live trying to check boxes and follow rules, we will be burdened down by our focus on performance. When we discover the freedom of grace to be who God made us to be, we will be uplifted by the freedom to soar.

As I reflect on my recent zip line experience, I remember the freeing feeling when I trusted my equipment and my guide and stepped off that platform. I was terrified when I took that first step, but as I flew through the trees, 100 feet above the ground, I experienced joy and freedom.

Grace is like that. We cannot continue to stand on the ground and allow the fear to keep us from living with reckless abandon. Grace allows us to leave our mistakes in the past and live for the future. We can never forget where we have been, there are always lessons to learn so we don't repeat past failures. But with grace, the past is passed and the future lies before us.

As Paul says in the passage above, and I am paraphrasing, continuing to live by keeping the law is life taking, but living in the freedom of grace is life giving. When we can express our faith in love rather than extinguishing our faith by working even harder to obey the law, we will discover what is truly important.

I continue to wrestle with this struggle on a daily basis, but I am learning to let go. My performance can never be good enough, but when I let go, trust God, and focus on the future, I will be able to live through my failures and use them to become a better, albeit flawed person who can enbody the power of the gospel for those around me.

shine!

Jason