I don’t know if you know this or not.  The “Ten Commandments” are old school.

I’ll let you in on another secret.

God only gave us his top ten list, because we (as humans) need a measuring stick.   We figure as long as we don’t make the top ten, we’re good.   It’s also a nice way to distance ourselves from undesirables.

So, we needed a list of do’s and don’ts and we got the law.  And we obsessed over it for thousands of years.  Every detail of life was spelled out.  Everything from what day to circumcise the boys to what fork to use when eating a salad.  What fork we use isn’t in there?  Oh yeah?  Prove me wrong.

Anyway, (yes it still applies, get yourself a drink)

The law was burdensome, and complicated, and can I still get an epidural on a Sunday?  But God did not intend for us to live under the law.  He was only proving his point, in a way that only God can.

We did not need rules, and regulations.  We needed love and grace.  Which he provided through his son.

And when Jesus was asked which were the greatest commandments he said this

³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” ³⁷Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[a] 38}This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[b] 40}All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I have known this for years.  “I love God.  He’s great.  I love people (not so much), they’re super.”  Although tonight I was busted with that one word.

All

Oh sure, he could have ALL of my Sunday.  Or ALL of my something.  But I decided which ALL’s they were.

Ten years ago it was ALL of my leftovers.  I faithfully gave him all of my leftover time and all of my leftover money.

I slowly added things over the years.

ALL of my money.

ALL of my marriage.

Guess what areas in my life are strong right now?

He got some of the rest of it.  Some of the time. Some of the  kids.  Some of my dreams.  And in return I got equal portion to what I had given.

In reality.  He was still getting a lot of nothing.

Because without me giving my ALL in every area of my life, I am not giving it my ALL.

And as much as I think I know what is best in my life, I have been proven wrong.

“I cannot possibly live with someone, TIL DEATH DO US PART,  that has a membership to NPR.”

“I cannot possibly give up my credit cards.  What if…?”

“Oh and if you think you are getting my sex life mister, well, you better rethink that.”

ALL is ALL.  ALL of it.

Including the orphans.

I can say “Thy will be done” but mean “they will take these kids when they pry them from my cold dead hands.”

And I have said it, and I have thought I meant it.   There was always the clause, anything but taking them from our home.

As much as I DO NOT want to say “Thy will be done”

Thy will be done.

And if I stand let me stand on the promise, that you will pull me through, and if I can’t let me fall on the grace that first brought me to you. Rich Mullins

So, here’s the deal.  It’s Sunday.

Why aren’t you in church?

Really, I want to know.

Don’t worry about offending me.

I’m just researching.

Hate God?

I won’t take it personally.

Hate his employees?

Not a problem.

You’ll notice I did not read you your Miranda rights.  There is no need.  I will not use anything you say against you in trying to convert you.  Pinky swear.

My only interest in this is why.

Yeah, this is a fight starter, to be sure.  I’m going to talk about BOTH politics AND religion.  You’ve been warned.

First, let’s talk about the Tim Tebow, Focus on the Family, Super Bowl commercial.  The “most controversial” ad of the year, even though there were tire commercials where the men chose tires over their wives, and men “not complaining” that their women have emasculated them because they can drive whatever they want?  How is that less offensive than a mother saying she is thankful for a son that she almost lost. Nowhere in the Tebow ad did anyone say anything about abortion or give a judgment as to its morality.  It simply pointed you to a website to learn more about their story.

I don’t know what has happened over there at family.org but, and they might pull my Christian card for this one,  thank God James Dobson isn’t the public face over there on this one.  He needed to step aside a long time ago and let families tell their stories about how Jesus rocked their world.  Like the guy from KORN.

I have been spared, not from anything like meth, but spared none the less.   In many cases suburbia might be as dangerous as meth to eternity.  Because we are “good” on our own.  We can debate the loftier sins without actually getting our hands dirty.  We go to church on Sunday, sit next to people who look like us, make the same amount of money as us and have the same hygiene regimens as us.   We send $30/month to charity who sent us a picture of a kid in Africa and we are doing our part for God and for orphans.  We pray for the homeless, and by pray I mean, “Dear God, please help that homeless man (not go crazy at this particular moment, pull me out of my car and kill me in front of my children because I’m pretending I don’t see him while I talk on my phone).  And we have done our part without really doing anything at all.

We take care of orphans only when it serves the purpose to ease the pain of our own need to fill our families, not as a directive from God.  Truth be told, most Christians do not want to face the realities of the orphans.  They want nothing to do with babies born addicted to drugs, or who have been sexually abused and may in turn abuse others.  We want healthy, well adjusted orphans that fit it with our own  family and who have no residual family members that we will have to deal with.  Somehow, I think we have really missed the boat, and are doing it in the name of God.

We can blame the gov’ment, or society, or the culture we live in but WE are the problem.  We expect the world to play by our rules when they aren’t even playing our game.  Let me just throw this one out there,  I think that Satan is proud of the work we are doing as Christians.  I think he’s great with the work churches are doing in America.  Sure, he’s lost a few to God, but those few pale in comparison to the numbers he would lose if we were effective Christians doing the work of God.  Because right now, churches are the only place you can discuss God, and if you aren’t already in a church, what is the liklihood that you will find yourself in one?  Because they are not known as safe havens for the hurting. That is something that we cannot blame on others.

A quick plug for my own church Imagine Fellowship we meet in a movie theater on the first Sunday of the month, shortly before the first showing of Saw IV.   We don’t have a building, don’t want one, because the church is not a place we meet, the church is who we are.   If you take away the building who you are becomes more evident.  What difference are we making in the world?  If we are not affecting our world, then what is our purpose?

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I wrote this in response to something I read on A girls site.   A girl and me do monthly co-writings.  She wrote about abortion and the Tim Tebow commercial here.  And to be fair she wrote this before the commercial aired, and didn’t know that I was writing this in response.