Free

A few weeks ago the whole family went out to dinner. We went through the usual routine of placing our order including beverages of choice. Milk and/or water for the girls, Dr. Pepper for me and Julie drinks Diet Coke. In the appropriate amount of time the waitress brings our drinks. Julie and I both notice that the waitress has taken the time to put two straws in mine and one straw in hers. This is good because there are few things on this earth as horrifying as lifting a carbonated beverage to your lips expecting it to be Dr. Pepper and then tasting Diet Coke!

One problem though, she still mixed up the drinks which Julie and I discovered as we took simultaneous sips and then simultaneously handed our drinks to the other followed by simultaneously making what I call “the Face.” There are few things on this earth as powerful as “the Face.” This non-verbal form of communication carries with it such loathing, such judgment, such derision that could be classified as a form of torture or even mental abuse. If you think I’m exaggerating then you’ve never been on the receiving end of “the Face.”

Julie and I both made “the Face”, not at each other or the waitress but more at the repulsive drinks held by the other. Then we each took a sip of our preferred beverage (addiction?) which was followed by a sigh of deep contentment and a smile, in that order. And as soon as this little ritual was done I was struck with the thought, “what must the people watching us be thinking?” That thought was followed almost immediately by the answer, “probably nothing, it’s probably happened to them lots of times before.”

Ok, so what if someone from another place was watching, like another country? Better yet what if it was someone from a different planet or time who didn’t know about dark colored carbonated beverages, what if they were watching? Because to the outsider those two drinks look exactly the same. Even in clear glass it is hard to tell the two apart. I spent the better part of a morning trying to track down the chemical difference between the two, to no avail. But a quick look at the ingredients lists many of the same. And I bet that if you never had tasted a carbonated beverage before, both of them would cause you to make “the Face.” But over the years I’ve become accustomed to and comfortable with Dr. Pepper.

But it made wonder if perhaps there are other areas of my life in which I behave the same way. Do I have strong convictions about something or have I simply grown accustomed to them? Lots of those things I would classify as important and insist that one is fundamentally better than the other... But lately I ask myself how do I know that for sure, perhaps it is just what is comfortable.

For many years I’ve been a regular voter in a particular political party and to varying degrees felt strongly about that. But to be honest I’m beginning to think they are about as different as Dr. Pepper is different from Diet Coke. There are some VERY big difference between the GOP and DNC but in the end they both seem to succeed in “leading” our country to the same degree. Their effectiveness seems to be the same as Dr. Pepper and Diet Coke’s effectiveness in hydration – the taste of one is familiar and the other deserves “the Face” but they both are worthless as a replacement for water.

And if I can somehow be tricked into equating the “familiar” with correct in soft drinks and political parties where else might I go astray? For years I’ve been making “the Face” at all the things that have been changing but shouldn’t have been changing, or so I thought. But lately I’ve begun to wonder if I even know how to use “the Face.”

There is one verse in the Bible that I haven’t been able to get out of my head lately. It is from Galatians 5:1 and in it St. Paul says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” And in that particular letter St. Paul is writing to correct a bunch people who believed that Christians had to “follow” the Old Testament in order to be a Christian, in particular they taught that a Christian man must be circumcised.

Read Galatians 5

Now of course there is a lot background to that story but it in the end it comes down to a group of people believing that they could not have a relationship with God in any way except as how they always had. In fact, they didn’t believe anyone could have a relationship with God expect by how THEY had a relationship with Him.

Now St. Paul would be the first one to deny any sort of “relative” approach to God, like the modern day “all paths lead to the same place” kind of thing. But what is interesting is that he is warning this group of Christians of the opposite extreme, don’t think God is defined by your rules and regulations.

I’ve spent a lot of my life making “the Face” at changes in this world. I’ve hollered about the good old days, I’ve pounded my fist about tradition and the value of what has been handed down in the past. And I still believe that is true. But now I’m trying to be on the lookout from the other side. I’m keeping an eye open for the part of me that makes the traditional, or what is comfortable and familiar, a rule - that turns it into law. And I don’t like being a slave to the law. I like being free. I like knowing that Christ came to set me free.

I love knowing that God wants me to be free, that he has set me free! Free from fear and pain and failure. Free from having to get God to love me by what I do or don’t do. Free from wondering when I’ve done enough or what happens when I fail. I love being free. But what I’m still learning is how to live free. And not free as in “I do whatever I want” but free as in “I love being free so much that I want others to be free.”

And if I’m going to do that then I’m going to have to figure out the difference between what is better and what is familiar, what is right and what is comfortable. I might even have to retire “the Face”… Someday.