LILKA FINLEY RAPHAEL wrote a lovely post: “Into the Deep”

And one short sentence grabbed my eyes and heart: “Deep means different things for different people.”  Lilkas’s post – and that short sentence – resonates with me more and more (and prompted this comment) …

“I cannot change you, nor do I wish to, but allow me to see differently as I allow.  And in the allowing we are both enriched.  Might you allow this “delight” to grow in you and others as you journey?”
(and if not – why not?)

And then this post – thank you Lilka  ((hugs))

More and more I find myself at odds with being “right or wrong” – at odds with compromising being the me (I sense I should be) in exchange for “fitting-in” (with being right).  Those who love me unconditionally don’t force me to do that – and the “me I should be” doesn’t wish that for them either.

Moe and more as I read the bible I see it to be full of that very simple invitation – an invitation to become “the me I should (and could) be”.

Except – it seems to me – “that invitation” has been channeled (regulated) into a faith and religion. A faith and religion that preaches being scripturally and biblically correct is the goal.  That teaches me that my “sin” cannot be dismissed as a regulator distraction.  That is based on my “being saved” as a regulator given for eternal life.  And that my being born to sin is a regulator fact of (Christian) life.   Because the more layers of regulation “being right” (with God) are added, the more compromises I find myself making.

For being a Christian comes with definitions.  And if I do not meet those definitions (no matter how wide they are cast) I am not a Christian.  Along with the glorious “get out” that “we are but sinners saved by grace” – a built-in

“I can’t help it so don’t blame me – blame God … “

(when I trash your character … sleep with your wife or husband … pass you by on the other side … fear you being different to me … and all the other “sins” we obviously have to be forgiven for … time after time .. week after week …) 

More and more it seems to me that matters more … being a Christian … matters more.

I no longer read the bible that way.  More and more I see the bible inviting me to become the me I should (and can) be.

And, for me, that has less and less to do with being “a Christian” (and all that “stuff”).  And more and more in allowing enrichment.  More and more in allowing “delight” in the enriching.  More and more in and of others – no matter the label they carry.  More and more in my journeying and NOT the “journey’s end” (with the pearly gates and all “that”).

More and more walking with a God who becomes all-embracing-unconditionally – rather than smaller and more “convenient”.  An unconditional God with this invitation-question:

“I cannot change you, nor do I wish to, but allow me to see differently as I allow.  And in the allowing we are both enriched.  Might you allow this “delight” to grow in you and others as you journey?”
(and if not – why not?)

A God of Unconditional Love who allows in every second – rather than the man-made god of sin-avoidance who does not.

Just these verses? 

Nah – the bible is stuffed with them …   

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Woman at the well

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