Religious Parkour

[teresaq]

A friend from college has a couple of sons who play an urban sport called Parkour. The participants scale walls and jump off buildings, running from point A to point B overcoming obstacles using only their body and whatever matter is in front of them. I saw a spoof of Parkour on the TV show the Office where one guy jumped from the roof straight into a dumpster, thus ending the game. The camera pans to Jim who leans in and says, “Parkour, the art of going from one point to another, in this case part A being insanity and part B being the hospital.”

Growing up in the church, I feel like I have been playing a game of religious Parkour for most of my life, where part A was coming to Christ, but part B seemed more like meeting the demands of judgmental Christians. I had to jump through hoops and fit through different boxes depending upon the local preferences for external behavior. I’ve been in groups where we had to wear dresses over our pants and a strictly vegan diet to churches where everybody has to watch a certain set of DVDs and agree with the current conspiracy theory to be accepted. As a matter of fact I have often felt like the body of Christ resembled the “accuser of the brethren” (Rev. 12:10) more than the gracious Savior that I have come to know. I have often wondered with Ghandi, “Why are Christ’s followers so unlike their Christ?”

I am now officially finished with avoiding the judgment of other Christians. Finally, halfway through my life I have discovered that the only person I want to please is Jesus Christ. Jesus had a way of telling it like it is without judging people. As a matter of fact Jesus said “I will not judge those who hear me but don’t obey me, for I have come to save the world and not to judge it” (John 12:47) What??? I thought Jesus was the Judge? Then Jesus said that the Father judges no one. (John 5:22-24) No criticism comes from the heart of God when we make mistakes. Remember it was Jesus who said “Neither do I condemn you.”(John 8:11)

So if Jesus and the Father judge NO ONE, what is the judgment?

“And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. John 3:19-21

It appears that the judgment is simply the verdict of how we respond to the Light of Christ. The judgment is the culmination of the life choices we are making today. As one of my favorite speakers often says, “You can’t avoid the truth, you can only postpone the day you deal with it.”* Today is the day of our salvation. Jesus wants to help us come into the light through His grace. The good news is that we don’t have to wear ourselves out anymore by jumping through boxes and man-made hurdles—we can simply walk with God--that is all that God requires.

For exhausted people like us, that’s really good news!

Cherilyn Christen Clough

www.myfatherinheavenisperfect.com

*Quote from Dr. Tim Jennings http://www.facebook.com/l/0354e;www.comeandreason.com

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