Divine Freedom

Katherine Gunn, at A Voice In The Desert, has posted some inspiring thoughts about spiritual arrogance... the attitude that "My God's better than your God!"

[Anyone old enough to remember the 1970s Ken-L-Ration commercial jingle knows exactly what I'm implying here].

In considering the issue of spiritual arrogance, there's a point that gets bypassed so routinely I could tear my hair out, and I'd like to focus on it here, for a little, as I did in commenting to Katherine on her blog. What follows here is largely taken from that comment.

When I read the Christian Scriptures, there is one theme that jumps off the page at me, over and over again; a theme that I find rarely, very rarely, in the organizations that claim to serve and love the Lord.

FREEDOM.

The whole point of the created universe is that something that is NOT God, something SEPARATE from God, is FREE TO CHOOSE to Love and serve God, and God Himself set things up that way.

That separate thing would be us... and rocks and trees and stars and seas, and lions and lambs, and cats and rats and elephants.

Very, very rarely will you hear a minister or a preacher talk about this incredible, paradoxical freedom. We have the right to say NO THANKS to God. And our YES is meaningless unless it is spoken from a free heart and a clear mind.

This is one reason Anabaptists tend to be unpopular... it's about choice, and meaningful choices can only be made when one is able to choose. PERMITTED to choose.

God Himself respected our freedom to choose; so much that He even died for it. And after thinking that through, I realized why coercive faith - and it's kissin' cousin, proselytization - has never felt authentic to me.

It's the absolute opposite of this divine freedom.

To choose is so completely different from being forced!

I hope I don't sound smug here; I certainly don't feel smug. Trying to live like this, to see the divine choice in every moment and every breath and every event, is like trying to surf on nothing but your bare feet. In a hurricane.

There was Someone, once, who was really good at that; but I'm never going to be anywhere near proficient at it.

Life Means So Much -- Chris Rice

In memory of Kathy Krajco

Every day is a journal page,
Every man holds a quill and ink.
And there's plenty of room for writing in
All we do and believe and think...
So will you compose a curse,
Or will today bring a blessing?
Fill the page with rhyming verse,
Or just some random sketching?

Teach us to count the days,
Teach us to make the days count;
Lead us in better ways -
Somehow our souls forgot
Life means so much
Life means so much
Life means so much.

Every day is a bank account,
And time is our currency.
Nobody's rich, nobody's poor;
We get 24 hours each...
So how are you gonna spend?
Will you invest, or squander?
Try to get ahead,
Or help someone who's under?

Teach us to count the days,
Teach us to make the days count;
Lead us in better ways -
Somehow our souls forgot
Life means so much
Life means so much
Life means so much.

Has anybody ever lived who knew the value of a life?
And don't you think giving is all
That proves the worth of yours and mine?

Teach us to count the days
Teach us to make the days count
Lead us in better ways
That somehow our souls forgot
Life means so much...

Every day is a gift you've been given
Make the most of the time every minute you're living...
Every day is a gift you've been given...
Make the most of the time every minute you're living
Every day is a gift you've been given
Make the most of the time every minute you're living....

... if ever a writer lived by these principles, Kathy Krajco surely did. Although she rejected a God of Laws from her Catholic childhood, her life and work embodied a God of Honesty and Fearless Love, who surely took her works as worship and has just as surely welcomed her Home to Him.

The Latin Mass for the Dead includes a most fitting prayer for her...

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace.

Amen.