Set Free

   

 

 

 

 

     Growing up the daughter of a dynamic duo such as my dad as a minister and my mom the church pianist, I was always in church. The fact that we lived in the parsonage right next door till I was 12 only added to my exposure in all things church related. (Seriously, I couldn’t be outside without being in the shadow of the steeple.) Riding my bike around the parking lot, playing on the typewriter in the church office, helping clean out the pews with our custodian, to visiting members with my Dad, and waiting the oh-so-long hours it took for choir rehearsals and meetings to be over. I was a church kid…or PK, as we called it.(preachers kid) We eventually moved to a new town and I grew older but still heavily involved in everything for my age at church.

 

    I successfully completed competitions for Bible Drill, I finished the Girls in Action workbooks to recieve Queen Regent status(if you know, you know), and attended church every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and all events inbetween. It's safe to say I was excelling in my religion. Still, when I got into my late teens and early twenties I began to see “religion” in a different light. I was more aware than I had been as a child to the hardships of the world. I was witnessing people lie, and be deceitful.  I was troubled by the conflict of seeing an action followed by hearing opposite words coming out of the mouths of adults I had been close to. As teens often do, I quickly came to the conclusion that I was NOT going to be told what I should believe anymore. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be told by anyone I had to be at church, or I had to be involved, or be part of religion.  So, when my parents finally allowed me to make my own decision, I decided I was not going to church anymore. Organized religion was not gonna hold me down.. so there.. (you adults can roll your eyes here..I do) 

 

   Years were wasted following my own path. Doing what I thought made me happy and leaving the structures and traditions I had known behind.  I wasn’t labeled anymore. I was free to be me! Or so I thought. 

 

   In reality I wasn’t free at all. As the years went by I became nervous, shy, and scared of everything. The total opposite of my youth. After having my first baby, I started to recognize evil all around me. It’s funny how holding a new born will all of a sudden point out every danger to you that you didn’t see before.  I was immediately reminded of my childhood and how safe I felt growing up in the shadow of that steeple and I would do ANYTHING to feel that again for my own child. I knew I couldn’t go back to the same life. Missing a flux compacitor for my Delorean to time travel, and the real fact that my parents had moved away, I was stuck.  I dug out my bible and started reading. Checking out all my old notes written on the pages and falling into the rabbit holes of the Bible (the good ones), I ended up finding the truth. My freedom and safety and “religion” was Jesus and His words.  I didn’t need the church building or my parents pushing me along.  I didn’t need the traditions of an organization to make me feel holy.  I was already… right there on my couch with a sleeping newborn and spit up on my shirt. 

 

    What changed me? I’m glad you asked!  John 8:31-32 for starters.  It reads “To those who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  Here we see that there are two types of listeners.  Those who believe and those who are really disciples.  You can believe that God exists and even he created the world and there is a Heaven, but there are those who really follow Him and they are called disciples.  Disciples not only study Gods word and follow all the rules, but they have a relationship with Him. They talk to Him, and walk the path He has planned for them.  These are the ones who know the truth and they are free because of it.  I wanted to have that truth so badly and now I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. 

 

    When it came to going back to church however,  I was still a bit sceptical.  Till I read this.  James 1:26-27, Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  See I was listening to human ideas of religion and not Gods. Here I learned that God recognized there were those who spoke of religion but it was worthless (just like I felt), and the real meaning was very simple. Taking care of others and not being overcome by the world and its worldly pleasures or problems. This helped me to see past anything I might hear or see coming from others at church. I was a bible-believing Christ-follower and as long as I remained I knew the truth and was free to be the religious person He created me to be. 

 

  I continue to have issue with the term organized religion for several reasons, but thats a story for another day. Now I am heavily involved again in church life and loving every single minute of it. (finding the right church makes all the difference). The main thing I want you to take away from this is: though we live in a corrupt world with lies flying at us from every side and so much bombardment of noise in our society and cultures, there is a way out.  A way to be set free. The Truth shall set you free from all the lies and noise and I hope you will sit on your messy couch in your messy spit up stained shirt and seek Him and know it today.