Hard Boiled Eggs?

"The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says 'Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.'"
"...The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are trying to do instead."
"...He [Jesus] never talked vague, idealistic gas. When He said, 'Be perfect,' He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering for is harder—in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."
-C.S. Lewis "Mere Christianity" ch. 8-

A Hill to Die On

We don't see light; we see what it touches. it is more or less invisible, made from nothing, just purposed and focused energy, infinite in its power (it will never tire if fired into a vacuum, going on forever). How fitting then for God to create an existence, then a metaphor, as if to say, here is something entirely unlike you, outside of time, infinite in its power and thrust: here is something you can experience but cannot understand. Throughout the remainder of the Bible, then, God calls Himself light. -Donald Miller, "Through Painted Deserts" p.60

I was talking to my friend Greg the other day and we were remarking on the inexplicable frustration we experienced when people use God, or the words of God, as weapons. It seems to me (to us) that more often than not it is those who have fallen into the path of legalism who are more guilty of this than others. They wield the word of God against their fellow believers (yes, even against their own children) in wrath and self-righteous indignation attempting to prove some point about the validity of their strongly held values. I admire the fever, i admire the conviction, yes i even admire the values sometimes to lesser or greater degrees. But should these be hills to die on? Should we hold with such conviction our values of music? Of dance? Of alcohol? Or even of lesser, petty, theology?
There comes a time when i must think that the heart, yea even the mind, must stop and consider the outlandishness of a value that is an extrapolation of scripture overshadowing the value of love and brotherly kindness. When did our preconceived notions of "Christian morals" become more important than the simple teaching of Christ about Faith, Hope, Truth and Love? When did our personal beliefs become the standard for the rest of Christianity? And when did these personal standards become a pedestal from which we look down on the meager masses of milling Christians wallowing in adulterous sin to their maker? Who gave us that right? Are we so great that we understand the infinite mind of God? Are we so great as to think that what we have interpreted as "right Christian living" is not open for debate; is the only answer and the only true example?
I fear, my friends, that if Christ were to walk among us today we would be the pharisees. I fear that we would be the "whitewashed tombs" who harbor so many rules and regulations that we cannot accept the simple grace of the messiah. For what is grace but a thing undeserved? Why then do we, who have received such a gift, live continually striving to be worthy? For what are all these rules and regulations that we set up but standards we try to meet so as to feel justified and know that God "approves" of us? It is not so my friends. No matter how high your standards, or how exacting your methods, you will never be viewed by God as any better or more spiritually worthy than the next Christian who has none of those standards. God does not judge in that way. My dear friends if He did none of us would be here. And if initial grace is not earned by merit, how then can we think that the grace of sanctification is any different...or anything different than the same grace we initially received?
Why then hold so dear to standards extrapolated from scripture? on music? or on alcohol? or on dancing, smoking, etc.? (or ANYTHING else we feel called to apart from scripture?) These are mere personal standards that have no foundational basis in scripture as to be a command for ALL men. They make no person better, they make no person more worthy Most importantly, they make no person more loved by God--and adherence to them should make no person more or less loved by US.
God, and godliness, and His words are not yours to use as your weapons against your own. He alone is the counselor to His thoughts, He alone will decide whom He loves and gives grace to, He is unthinkable and unsearchable, how dare we play His part in deciding what is, and who has Christian Spirituality by thoughts of our own choosing and making.

Retrace
Anberlin

Oh, how I've tried to get you out of my head.
And I lied, broken words I said.
Never thought I'd walk on this street again.
Standing where it all began.

Tried to forget when I left this town,
But it takes me right back when I come back around.

Retrace the steps we took on that long summer night.
I'm right there by your side.
Retrace the steps we took when we met worlds away.
Counting backwards while the stars are falling.

Oh, how I find every subtle thing screams your name.
It reminds me of places of times we shared.
Couldn't live locked in these memories.
Now I'm chained to my thoughts again.

And I tried to forget when I left this town,
But I'll take you right back if you come back around.

Retrace the steps we took on that long summer night.
I'm right there by your side.
Retrace the steps we took when we met worlds away.
Counting backwards while the stars are falling.

I need some shelter, I need some safety.
Photographs, they haunt me lately.
Chasing shadows as the evening takes me.
I'm still searching, but the picture's fading.

Retrace the steps we took on that long summer night.
I'm right there by your side.
Retrace the steps we took when we met worlds away.
Counting backwards, still counting backwards.

And no where else has ever felt like home.
And I can't fall asleep when I'm lying here alone.
I replay your voice, it's like you're here.
You move the earth, but now the sky is falling.

Retrace the steps we took on that long summer night.
In my mind, I'm back by your side.
Retrace the steps we took when we met worlds away.
Counting backwards while the stars are falling.