A Diffferent Way of Living

I was reminded this week of how walking with Jesus does not fit well into the many ways that people choose to live, especially if we choose to live in light of polarities -- you know taking one side over another, such as being conservative or liberal, being pro-choice or pro-life, being capitalistic or socialistic. On the continuum of polarities I find that people tend to gravitate to one end or the other -- somehow that provides a place of comfort.

What I encountered this past week that caused me to notice this once again was visiting a college with my daughter who is entering her senior year in high school. The college was a Christian college, which had numerous rules regarding behavior, socializing, and dress codes. We have visited other colleges which were on the other end of the spectrum which had far fewer rules, or at least different kinds of rules -- dealing more with discrimination and tolerance, than personal lifestyle choices.

Where my thinking is going on this is that people either prefer to have a set of external parameters (rules) to guide their living and thinking, or do not want to be constrained by externals so that they can choose whatever they wish -- to be guided by their own desires and wants. I have found my self in both contexts over the years, and I have been uncomfortable in both. Perhaps the problem has been trying to be a moderate, one who is in the middle. What I am coming to realize is that such polarities and such continuums are contrary to walking in the way of Jesus.

Often times in Scripture, Jesus was confronted with two choices -- one on each end of a continuum, "should we pay tribute to Caesar or not?" Jesus response was one that was not to be found on that continuum between obedience to the State or not, but he created a whole new paradigm for engaging life. His response whether to pay tribute was, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." This is no "whatever" response, or one that skirts the issue, but presents a very different way of living.

It is a way of living that is not guided by a set of external rules, nor guided by our own often selfish whims -- but it is a calling to live in step with the Spirit of God -- to discern a way of being in life that exemplifies a way that brings wholeness and peace.

In such an approach I find, if we still need to use polarity labels, that I am at times conservative, and at other times liberal. For example, I am pro-life, but I find that following Jesus calls for me to be pro-life in all of life -- not just at birth. There are many pro-lifers who demonstrate against abortion, but are pro-capital punishment. To be consistently pro-life, in my mind, is to seek life in all the contexts of our engagement with society -- not only to protect the fetus, but also to protect children in poverty, spouses and families in abusive relationships. It means we seek to wage peace, rather than waging war against our enemies, it means we do not take an eye for an eye, but seek justice in such a way that life is honored.

Such a way of being does not easily fit on a continuum, but presents an alternate way of being in the world. It is a way of being not hemmed in by rules that alleviate any discerning on our part, or even a way of being that is libertine in which we are only constrained by our desires with no concern for the other. Rather, it is a way of being that requires an ongoing connection with the God who created us, so that our living, our choices, demonstrate a way of being in this world that fosters life, that fosters peace, that fosters hope, that lives out love.

This is not an easy way to live, because not many will understand your not siding with them -- you will be an alien, a stranger to people -- but in this way of living, as we rely on the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, we will live in such a way that enables people to see what life and peace really look like.

Living in the Spirit calls us to find comfort, strength and direction in yielding to the Spirit, rather than in external rules or in our own estimations of what we think is right. We focus too much on establishing rules, or demanding our rights and freedoms, rather than cultivating a sensitivity to the things of the Spirit, and the courage to heed the Spirit -- a really different way of being in this world.