THE FREEDOM TO LIVE AS WE WISH – THE WISDOM TO LIVE AS WE OUGHT

 by adam harbinson

Being good won’t get you to heaven, being bad won’t keep you out. A shocking thing to say? Perhaps, but it’s shocking only because much of what we believe is based on culture and folklore often bearing no resemblance to the truth. We believe what we believe because we’ve always believed it, and we’ve always believed it because everybody else does and we’re not about to break rank or shout, ‘The Emperor has no clothes!’

The result is that our religious opinions are shaped by the thoughts of the few, accepted by the many who can’t be bothered thinking things through for themselves, and often our understanding of God is based on little more than myth.

For me, when it comes to the relationship between God and his creation, there are only two options. Either God is a celestial puppeteer, directing every tiny detail of our lives, or he’s not. If he’s not – which is what I believe – then he doesn’t stick his nose in where it’s not wanted. Rather, he waits in the wings of our lives offering guidance to help us avoid life’s potholes, and comfort for when don’t listen and mess up.

The trouble is, few of us ever risk arriving at our own conclusions, we prefer to feed on the second-hand thoughts of others. The basis of the Christian life is knowing exactly where we stand with this God of ours. And this is it: he has given us the freedom to live as we wish, and the wisdom to live as we ought. Sadly, not many will ever experience the wonderful liberty that Jesus talked so much about and that he lived and died to make available to us.

There’s a story told about Willie John the farmer who went to the General Store to buy a new pair of boots.

He poked about until he found the ones he wanted, plain black and half price, tied together by a piece of string and hanging on a nail. He bought them and shuffled off home. Next week he was back.

‘It’s not like you Willie John to be here two Saturdays in a row. What’s wrong? Are yer boots alright?’

‘Och they’re great Tom,’ says he. ‘I just wondered if you’d have a pair with a longer piece of string.’ It hadn’t occurred to him to cut the string that was restricting his movement so he couldn’t enjoy his new boots.

I haven’t been to a church service in a while, but for more years than I care to count I was there several times a week. And never once did I hear the gospel of freedom preached, not once. You want to know why? Sixteenth century Statesman Sir Thomas More understood well. Of King Henry VIII he said, ‘Tell the king what he ought to do, not what he may do. For if a lion knew his own strength, hard were it for any man to rule him.’

Truth, as Krishnamurti said, is a pathless land. No one can take you there or show you how to find it, except the Spirit of Truth who Jesus said would ‘guide us into all truth.’ But we must learn to ask, to listen and then to trust what we hear, and that’s the hard bit, for often if flies in the face of all we have been taught.

Cut the cords. Enjoy your hard-won freedom.