Free to Fail

GALATIANS

Pardon the odd analogy, but I feel like I am pregnant with an idea that I can't get out. I am honestly overwhelmed by it, and I want really badly to be able to communicate it in a way that people will understand but it is so much bigger than me and I am terrified that I won't be able to do it...

To further add to my literary angst, this is an idea that is revolutionary, an idea that in the past month and a half has flipped my world upside down.....or maybe right side up would be more accurate.

Here is the word, loaded with meaning, with the power to found a country, a religion, a lifestyle: Freedom.

In 1776, John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence, a document which asserted America's freedom from the British Monarchy. In 1920 the nineteenth ammendment was passed, giving women the right to vote. Today many continue to assert their own personal freedom -- freedom to pursue happiness, freedom to marry whomever they want, freedom to be independent from their parents, freedom to live according to their personal preferences.

Freedom is far-reaching, and yet if there is one area that seems to frown on freedom it is Christianity. Many see Christianity as a religion of law, a religion that forces you to shape up, a religion that makes you successful. Christianity is perceived as a religion for good people, a religion for non-divorced church attenders. If you want to be a Christian you had better change your lifestyle, stop doing drugs, stop sleeping with your boyfriend, stop wanting to sleep with your boyfriend, stop complaining, stop gossiping, stop tolerating homosexuality and abortion and become a republican. All of these commands imposing on natural human instinct, they are the antithesis of freedom. And none of these commands are Christianity.

I will admit that there is a draw to the "self-help" nature of these commands -- if my life is not going how I want it to, and I know that not being on drugs will make me healthier and thus happier, then I am going to exert effort to stop doing drugs...and because of the benefits it might not seem so imposing. That does not change the fact that these laws are not Christianity: Christianity is not a "fix-yourself" religion.

Why not? Doesn't it make logical sense to adjust behavior that you intuitively know to be better? Someone might say and think this until they try it. Once they try it they will realize that it doesn't work how we want it to. Perhaps someone exerts will-power and has enough self-control to hold their tongue, to not complain. Though they are no longer voicing their cynicism, this will not change the fact that they continue to see life as something to grumble about.

Christianity is a religion that begins when you admit that you can't change yourself. Christianity is a religion for people who thought they were good, and then realized that they are only fooling themselves. It is for those who once thought they were strong, and have decided to humbly admit weakness. It is for those who now see their incompetency instead of their sufficiency.

Christianity frees bad people from striving to be good people. Christianity frees us to fail.