Rules are everywhere and yet many of us grew up not knowing the rules. Worse yet, the rules have changed over time and some are not even close to the original. Take for example dinner table rules. Don't put your elbows on the table. Not a problem for the generation that eat on the couch in the family room or the teenager who stacks dishes in their rooms because they forgot where they got them. Remember the bathroom rules? Put the lid down when you are done. Most have given up on this fight in favor of "pick up your dirty clothes and towels when you're done." Some rules were particular to relationships. For instance implied or spoken children weren't to speak unless spoken to. That's one that is gone. The rules for respect of elders has also diminished and in a lot of instances disappeared over the years. How about the rule that you go to school, study hard, find a job and be a contributor to society? My favorite though is the Golden Rule. Do unto others what you would like them to do unto you. Sounds simple enough but would I really like someone heavy into some of the fringe cultures sharing their world with me? I think not.
Some of the rules we learned were sick. Like, dads upset what did I do wrong? The rule was that somehow what was wrong was my fault. As you go through the Bible from beginning to end this rule is present more often than not. All we did was travel to Egypt to escape the famine and to live. What did we do to deserve slavery? David and his men fleeing King Saul must have wondered the same thing. Adam and Eve were there in the garden minding their own business when that serpent arrived and the rest is history. Yep, that's where it started. God had told them they had everything and needed nothing. They were innocent and didn't even know what "wrong" meant. Then one day all that changed for not only them but for every man, woman and child on earth from that day to eternity. Thank you Adam and Eve!!! There was only ONE rule and they broke it. Why? Because they wanted to. Most of the time when I break a rule I do so for the very same reason. How about you?
We don't need to own other people's actions and reactions. We only need to own our own actions and reactions. People cannot make me feel like I broke the rules. I need to acknowledge that I broke the rules of my own volition. When I sin, "the devil didn't make me do it." I chose to do sin. I don't excuse anyone from making their own choice to break the rules. Since that privilege is for God to do the task is none of my business. What if (here comes a novel thought) we actually were honest with God, others and ourselves about our life. Good, bad, indifferent alike were to be openly discussed and with me acknowledging that I had failed to obey the rules. What rules am I talking about? There are only two. I knew nothing of either of them until I was 20 years old. Until that time the rules I knew were a mixed bag of everything. Whatever felt right. The two rules that have stood the test of time are first to "love the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind. The second is like it in that we are to "love our neighbors as ourselves." Wait! That really sounds like only one rule: to LOVE. What if we actually had all of our life centered offensively on love and defensively on nothing?
The people around me growing up couldn't tell me what the rules were because they didn't know them themselves. How can you go around sharing LOVE when you're busy taking care of your own agenda? I grew up in a prison of sick and selfish rules that damaged me in many ways. Some of them affect me still today. The love of God has been transforming my life since I gave my life to him in 1972. That's a lot of years at work to have not finished the job. Probably because there is so much trash to clean out first. If over the years I had been concentrated on cleaning out my own trash and less concerned about the splinter in others eyes, maybe I'd be further along. So, today, I will try to stay with the loving and leave the rest to God.
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