Heart Tracks - Wiggle Room

     I saw an entry on social media recently that was a response to a posted article that challenged a very basic tenet of faith, and that is the literal existence of an eternal hell for those who ultimately reject Christ.  It read, "I wish our group (denomination) had some wiggle room on this."  Now, I don't know what was in the heart of the one who posted the article or made the comment, and I don't attribute this to them, but I couldn't help thinking that our flesh always seeks "wiggle room" when it comes across things it doesn't like about Him, His Word, and His cross, and His ways.  The flesh will always seek to wiggle out of the place of sacrifice, of surrender.  It will always seek for a more agreeable way, to live in what author Patrick Morley calls, " a more comfortable orbit."  An orbit that revolves not around the Father, but ourselves, and the God we wish to create for ourselves.
    In his book, Walking With Christ In The Details Of Life, Morley writes, "Over the past few decades, many of us started off on the wrong foot with Jesus Christ.  It is the proposition that Jesus can be Savior without being Lord.  The idea that one can add Christ, but not subtract sin.  Many of us have merely added Christ to our lives as another interest in our already busy and otherwise overcrowded schedule....The problem is that we often seek the God we want, but do not know the God who is."  In short we are "cultural Christians."  Of such, little is asked, and little, even less, is given.  Surrender, if we partake of it at all, is something we do in part, never the whole.  We've found that comfortable orbit.  We are not fully absorbed into His life, but instead have found ways to have Him adapt His to ours.  At least, that's what we believe, even if we would never admit it.  We've found the God we want, but are oblivious to the God who is.  How could we not be, for as Morley says, they're not the same God. 
    Most in the professing church can't understand how anyone could be an atheist, but if we were to examine the day to day path of our lives, would we not, more often, even most often, have to be classified as practical atheists ourselves?  Before we rise up against that, let's examine a few things.  Before He chose His disciples, Jesus spent the entire night in prayer with His Father.  This was His approach in all of life's affairs.  He said He did nothing of Himself, but only what He saw the father doing.  Is this our approach, or do we live and make daily choices as though He didn't exist, relying on our own wisdom, our own strength and understanding?  In our approach to life, are we guided by His Word, by what He has said, and what He is saying now, or do circumstances, people, and opinion lead us?  Do we view the Father and His Kingdom as the ultimate reality, or do we see the kingdom and structures of the world as bigger and more real than Him?  Just what is the "real world" to you and I?
    How much "wiggle room" are you and I looking for today?  What are we truly seeking with all our hearts; the God we want, and who provides all the wiggle room we desire, or the God who is, who simply says, "Take up your cross, and follow Me," and as we do, we trust, we obey, we live, with the God who is, and who is infinitely greater, and more beautiful than the god we want could ever be.

Blessings,

Pastor O