4th in a 5-part series on the pillars of life

A little tyrant lives within us all that wants to find structure and comfort where the only certainty is mystery. We by nature seek to bring order out of chaos. As pioneers in any new world, whether it is physical or metaphysical, we want to cut down trees, plant gardens, and put up fences. Because this is the way we are hard-wired, we need the in-built brake on our proclivity that the doctrine of freedom brings. Theologians are inveterate fence-makers whose lives generally cannot support their vocation. As they erect spiritual fences for the rest of us, we assume they know what they are doing and live within the confines of their boundaries.

A consequence of this sad fact of life is that thousands of denominations speak definitively about things which are debatable. While God designed us for the freedom which an embrace of myth and mystery produce, we default to variations on the theme of legalism, a theme proven to be bankrupt in the Old Testament, and excoriated by Jesus in the New.

Embracing the freedom Jesus came to give us softens the edges of doctrinal positions which define the terms by which we engage with God and one another, terms which when reduced to paper and interpreted by men, inevitably become hard-edged and joyless. Understanding that this dynamic is what drains the vitality from all denominations over time, we need to allow God to be God.

Ultimately, embracing a lifestyle of freedom, we live as children of the covenant and masters of creation, realizing that we were born to soar. Unfettered by lifestyle strictures mandated by theological curmudgeons, we find our wings and take flight.

Tomorrow, we look at Kingdom.