Do I know you?

I've been thinking about what one of my favorite authors said when writing about his childhood experience with God. "If you don't love somebody, it gets annoying when they tell you what to do or what to feel. When you love them you get pleasure from their pleasure, and it makes it easy to serve. I didn't love God because I didn't know God." It would make sense then that people who are not in a relationship with God would see Him as bossy, controlling, and less than appealing. And I can see how that would impact the way you feel if you disappointed God, if you weren't in a love relationship with Him. Then are you really worried about disappointing God, or are you worried about the way YOU feel when you goof up? I can totally see how, from the outside looking in, Christianity as a religion would be a put off. And it makes sense to me why some of the self focused religions are flourishing and growing.

I think that changes the way we love and look at people, and how we would communicate to them what it means to be a follower of Jesus. When we see or hear about someone being a murderer, rapist, thief, or you name it, our heart would break, rather than judge. What is the difference between me and the criminal? It's not that I am a better person, but God's love that has changed me, right? And so it would be my desire to see their heart changed by God's love then right? I wouldn't judge and label them, but my heart would break, because that's what God's heart does. I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately, and I often find myself having some pretty wild conversations in my head. I won't get into any those right now, because they are way to scrambled. I shared one of these thoughts with a couple of friends who spent the night at Sarah and I's place Saturday night, and they looked at me with a look that says, "That sounds interesting, but why the crap did you think about that?" Any way, this has been some of the conversation I have been having with some friends who have been asking about God, religion, and the Bible. Most of them do not want to follow God or think that following Him is just oppressive. Thought I would throw it out there for discussion.

Grace
Wallace D.