No Cookie Cutters, Molds or Stencils

If you try to fit people into a mold, either the people will end up bruised and damaged, or the mold will break.  You can't force other people to preform a certain way. There are usually many acceptable ways to accomplish a goal, and each person will have a method that is somehow different from everyone else's. God's a freehand artist.  He created each person uniquely, and each one should be free to serve Him the way they were designed to.  We should be able to express our heart for Him as we minister to those around us.  I am sad and frustrated today because of man made rules and  procedures that must be followed to the specifications of a human taskmaster.  I am burdened.  As a servant I am inhibited by these restrictions.  

Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  There is nothing in there about doing things a certain way, it's just about love.  There is nothing about following a stencil pattern program, it's just about love.  There is nothing about filling a certain number of positions or seats in the pew, it's still just about love.  If each member of the church would truly devote their heart to loving God, they couldn't help but love their neighbor.  If each neighbor was truly loved by a member of God's family, the church, they could hardly avoid being drawn to Him.   

We complicate things with our lists and demands when we could be so effective by just following His two greatest commands.  What were they again?  Oh yes...  Love and love.  Love God, love your neighbor.  He didn't say you had to do it by standing in a certain spot each Sunday morning forcing a smile and speaking with an assigned group of people.  He didn't say you had to do it by following a certain protocol or decorating scheme invented by this or that committee, and he didn't say you had to do it by fulfilling a job description contrived in a document.  He just said love.  Love should flow from inside, not be manufactured on the outside to fit a cookie cutter pattern.  Love must be given freely, not extracted forcefully by a set of expressed expectations.

What if we were to just let down our walls and facades and really do it?  What if we were to love God with all our hearts without reservation or fear, and then let the cup that He fills in our hearts overflow to the people around us.  What if  instead of trying to fix everything that we perceive to be wrong around us we simply reached out our hand to help where we saw a need?  What if instead of targeting people as possible new recruits we welcomed them as friends?  How different would our world be?  How much more joy would we experience if we were acting sincerely instead of staging an act?  How much more would God be glorified?  

I love the church, but I am fed up with programs.  Events are great, and schedules valuable, but I have had it with agendas that bypass the heart.  I don't want to approach visitors like a businessman approaches a customer in a restaurant or retail store.  I don't want to be a waitress who serves because she is hoping for a tip and a repeat customer; I want to serve because I am someone who genuinely loves God and cares for people.  There is not much I can do to change the overall atmosphere, but I can affect the temperature right where I stand.  I can live out a life of authentic love wherever I go.  I can pray that God will use me as a spark that sets the church ablaze for Him, and you can do the same. Together our little lights can illuminate the darkness, but we have to be allowed to shine in our own unique shade of the spectrum.