What is a follower/believer?

I was taught that I must seek the back-door, I must follow the small winding (and hidden) path.  I was taught that – having been saved – I was okay (unlike those who were not).  I was taught that to find this small door to heaven – to follow this winding tiny path to God – the reality was to travel a road as big as a motorway – because all those who taught the bible all taught the same stuff:

The “back-door” is a huge neon-lit gothic-fantasy style entrance – complete with full-on sound effects – and visible over decades and millenia of church teaching.  And as for the “small and winding path” … ?  It is the straightest widest strait-jacket signposted traffic signposted well-lit no roundabout or detours allowed motorway to heaven!  One that is stuffed full of believers all sticking together – no overtaking allowed.

(all because the bible says so)

I was taught that to be a follower meant having no more than “two-degree eyesight”.  That a follower looks straight ahead … follows the emanating glow from this “huge neon-lit gothic-fantasy style entrance”.  I was taught that to leave the “straightest widest strait-jacket signposted” road was the (slippery) slide all the way to hell!

(all because the bible says so)

Yet the bible I read has a “360 degree” God and Jesus at its heart.  A God and Jesus who did not “follow” anything straight or well lit.   But who did stop and heal, tarry and converse, give and respond, meet all wherever and whenever each was.  “Following”  was (and is) 360 degrees always.

So I want become a “360 degree” follower.  Not because the bible says so.  But because I want to be a 360 degree follower without need of neon-lit signs, or signposted traffic, or the need to follow the herd, or the need to conform to “tradition”, and without the need to hand control to “the church” – rather than “God” (all these man-made mechanisms purport to serve).  And because with 360 degrees I have no need to block my journey with anything I encounter because the (taught) bible says I must.

There were two (at this point) wonderfully honest comments under yesterday’s post:

Lilka: “Sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son and sometimes the Spirit but that collection of books no longer causes me guilt when I don’t read it. I DO feel guilty when I don’t go out and sit alone with God to listen or speak with no particular agenda. Or, if I don’t do something I really feel God prodding me to do.”

vw: “I heard in my spirit, “I am carrying you now”. Gave me great comfort, because I am accustomed to pushing after Him. The time comes when He truly carries us when we can’t.”

Thank you both – and please pop across to read the whole comments and responses.  

So I think we need to stop doing as we are taught.  I think we need to stop pushing, stop feeling guilty, stop making points, stop being “two degree followers”.  Because I love how real “360 degree” fellowship/connection finds both commonality AND diversity (but NEVER division).

(all because the bible says so)

I am not a 360 degree follower because the bible says so.  I am becoming one by not pushing, not following the rules, and not chasing this (fictional) “heavenly gate”.   I am becoming one by “allowing the bible” rather than “doing the bible”.  And yet (oddly to my mind) … following the “small winding path”, enjoying the smell of flowers, loving the buzz of a bee, relishing the conversation of a “non-believer”, being in the company of those who are not “in the club” … all seems to mean I am not in the club either.  Means that I am on the wrong road.  That I have lost sight of this heavenly gate.  All “because the (taught) bible says so” …

(confused.com)

Doesn’t that seem a little odd to you as well?

.