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How dare they have a sale within a week of us buying at FULL PRICE!   We got “a bargain” a week ago that turned out NOT to be a bargain AT ALL!  In fact it was a non-bargain AND over-priced (by a WHOPPING 30% on the “price” today) AND it is a big-ticket item AND I am not happy!

“!!!” come thick and fast when unhappy.

How often does that happen … we find “a real snip” and part with our hard-earned cash (before the prices go up again) … only to find the price goes south and we are left very much north?  Our sense of well-being with the universe quickly becomes that disgruntled …

“How Very Dare They!”

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“So here you go kids – enjoy!” followed by “Where are you hiding and why?” followed by “For your own good it’s time to leave home.”  Followed by “God is to be feared (so better worship and praise Him if you know what’s good or you).”

“Okey-dokey – who wants to be my day labourer today?” followed by “It’s not fair – we worked longer and harder than them!”

Our “bargain” quickly becomes our “right” with all the baggage that comes with “entitlement” – and all because my “right” is no more than my self-determined “entitlement”.

“I have rights!” means “I am entitled!”

And being entitled applies to my place in the queue … how long we wait for “customer service” … applies to every little “how we are treated” (and mistreated).  Whether we  are entitled applicable (or have no rights excluded) based on your judgement of our “economic worth”.  Whether your judgement of our economic worth might fit (but our absence of “appropriate behaviour” upbringing doesn’t.

Getting wrapped-up in “entitlement” is a pile of pooh!

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If I grabbed a bargain (with both hands and lot of whooping and hollering) and the price went down … How does that become any less a bargain than “before”?

If I agreed a good rate of pay and then someone else gets a “better rate” … How does that suddenly make my rate “bad”?

If I willingly got saved with fanfare and gratitude … How does that become a cross to bear and a burden to carry thereafter?

Unless being saved makes me entitled.  Gives me rights.  Makes me better “different” to you.

I went and got saved.

But just as a wedding is simply the doorway to the rest of my life with one partner – so too being saved.   A commitment to relationship.   Nothing more.  Nothing less.

And, in my case, it is a relationship that has changed me from a follower … To a walker-besider … And in-fronter … And behinder …  Of beliefs “relationship GPS locations” that keep changing.

My relationship is not static.  My beliefs are not static. 

And right now (and for some time) that/they has/have centred around love without condition.  The definition of which is …

“Love without condition”.

(and which seems to trouble a lot of my saved travellers)

The trouble being that love without condition is conditional upon being saved (so is NOT without condition).  Which really means “love without condition” is a consequence of condition.  But is wrapped up in good theology … “God loves you without condition – but you can’t love Him until you are saved.” as we define

(the unconditional “conditions”)

Which is as logical as saying there is NO WAY God allows everyone into heaven!  Or (to rewrite the trouble bible for a minute):

“Love without condition – NO WAY!”

The consequence of which is that the “unchurched and unsaved” are not entitled until they agree to get saved (and then gather together to relieve the weight of this cross of burden and be forgiven for carrying it badly worship week after week).

Which is why my beliefs “GPS location” in this relationship has become more fluid.

Not because I am re-writing the bible to suit my beliefs. 

But because the bible is re-writing my beliefs to embrace the reality of “love without condition”.

A reality that my God happily allows me to trot around (and away and back again).

He seems to value my company more than my “GPS location” beliefs.  Which – when it comes to “love without condition”, I think is …

“Love without condition”.

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