Freedom

Imagine being a Jew memorizing and following 600+ laws and feeling like you can’t breathe or move without the fear of breaking a law and ending up with the wrath of God pouring down on you…a God you don’t know or feel a connection to. Simply a powerful Being with really high expectations and lightening bolts coming from His eyes. Hundreds of years of being bound to these rules. So long that you have no clue of the reason behind them. Only that there is danger if you fail to follow them.

Fast forward to the time of Jesus… over a dozen centuries later. The men who were the guardians and enforcers of those laws ask the Man who claimed to be the Messiah which of those laws was the most important. So many rules to choose from and the one He chose wasn’t measurable. Love God. Totally and completely. How do you measure that? How can you tell how you compare to your neighbor?

He didn’t stop there but added that there was a second law that went with it, like the bookends of all the laws of God. And once again, it wasn’t something that you could grade and come out on top in a competition. Love others. Respect and honor them. Don’t do or say anything hurtful, but treat them the way you wish to be treated.

Then comes the guy Paul who really did know all 600 rules and followed them to the T and persecuted anyone who didn’t measure up, especially those who were following the One who selected LOVE as the most important of all the commandments. And then came the day when he had a close encounter with LOVE. A love that gave him another chance to understand that God wasn’t interested in his performance but in his passion for serving others and loving them.

So, bring this lesson home. Do you have a list of rules in your house? Maybe they are just in your head and your kids find out what they are right after they break them. Perhaps your kids don't even know the reason behind the rules that you enforce is your love for them. Teach them that the rules you make spring from the foundation of love and the life of serving and honoring God and others. Don't create rules just fit in our culture.

I encourage you to take a look at the foundation upon which you are building your family values. Are they built on a LOVE that serves others? That sees others as valuable and cherished by God, no matter how they look or act, or drive, and treats them as such? Are your kids learning to serve others or to demand to be served? Take the time to help them “unlearn” the self-centeredness that is our innate nature. Help them to think of themselves less and others more.

In his letter to the Jesus-followers in Galatia, Paul says that there is freedom in loving and serving. That seems counter to our culture because we like to be served. How can serving others be freeing? Because when we serve, we are living out our purpose. We are free to be what we were made to be. We can keep our focus on loving God and others and find the freedom to live. Truly and abundantly blessed as we become the people we were meant to be.