My Dad...
My dad is a bushman. Not in the sense that he belongs to a tribe of Australia's outback. He's a bushman because you could parachute him blind-folded anywhere in northern Canada and he would find his way back. He wouldn't return home ragged or hungry either. He would have a stomach full of his latest kill (various creatures he considers edible) and wearing that animal's hide as a jacket. More than likely, he would have some extra hides and a bag full of empty beer cans to sell.
I was thinking last night about listening to my dad and some of his trapper friends talking when I was young. I remember listening (not because I was a part of the conversation but because I was nosy) to stories about animals caught in traps who chewed off their legs in order to escape. Rather than go to sleep and die, as some animals do, they would chew off a foot and walk away.
Oddly enough this reminds me of myself as a Christian trying to figure out how I fit into church. (Not talking about my home church but any church)Often I feel that I don't fit into Christian church culture, and I am "trapped" by a certain code of behaviour that is expected.
Can I avoid all religious people because it is difficult. As someone who loves Jesus, I am apart of the body. I can't cut myself off from body and walk away, then I'm just a dead foot laying in a trap with no hope for life.
Many people who find church difficult just go to another one. They soon find they've exchanged one kind of trap for another. Some chew off their foot and stop being apart of the body all together.
I am trying to live free and avoid the traps set out for me. I am not trying to be cryptic by traps in church I mean, "fear of rejection", "desire for acceptance so that I would behave differently" or "fear of man" etc...
Maybe freedom is struggle for everyone, not just in churches, but in school, work, with friends, or social clubs. What is it to be free of these pressures?
DISCLAIMER:
I realize that in this analogy my dad is the devil so just to be clear, I do not think that my dad is satan!
My dad is a bushman. Not in the sense that he belongs to a tribe of Australia's outback. He's a bushman because you could parachute him blind-folded anywhere in northern Canada and he would find his way back. He wouldn't return home ragged or hungry either. He would have a stomach full of his latest kill (various creatures he considers edible) and wearing that animal's hide as a jacket. More than likely, he would have some extra hides and a bag full of empty beer cans to sell.
I was thinking last night about listening to my dad and some of his trapper friends talking when I was young. I remember listening (not because I was a part of the conversation but because I was nosy) to stories about animals caught in traps who chewed off their legs in order to escape. Rather than go to sleep and die, as some animals do, they would chew off a foot and walk away.
Oddly enough this reminds me of myself as a Christian trying to figure out how I fit into church. (Not talking about my home church but any church)Often I feel that I don't fit into Christian church culture, and I am "trapped" by a certain code of behaviour that is expected.
Can I avoid all religious people because it is difficult. As someone who loves Jesus, I am apart of the body. I can't cut myself off from body and walk away, then I'm just a dead foot laying in a trap with no hope for life.
Many people who find church difficult just go to another one. They soon find they've exchanged one kind of trap for another. Some chew off their foot and stop being apart of the body all together.
I am trying to live free and avoid the traps set out for me. I am not trying to be cryptic by traps in church I mean, "fear of rejection", "desire for acceptance so that I would behave differently" or "fear of man" etc...
Maybe freedom is struggle for everyone, not just in churches, but in school, work, with friends, or social clubs. What is it to be free of these pressures?
DISCLAIMER:
I realize that in this analogy my dad is the devil so just to be clear, I do not think that my dad is satan!
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