Wow, see what you got there!
How can you see with that speck
Chilling at the center of your eyes?
No way, I can’t trust your judgment!
Step aside, you can’t see well
I’ll stand for you, I’ll look for you
Take my word, I can tell better.
Why? Because I see clearer.
What? Log in my eyes?
Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter
It stops me not from seeing well.
I recall back in high school, the “born again” Christians we knew in class were weird; very critical of others, insensitive, anti-social, and unfriendly. It made the thought of becoming like them very repulsive and kept a good number of us out of their path, “Lest they chew you up alive and swallow.” Each time they made any attempt toward anybody, you knew they only cared about inviting you to their fellowship and the interpretation wasn’t pleasant at all: attend and become like these: no way! A way that should have been the light that draws people to God became a repulsion that steered them in the opposite direction.
It took God to win some of us over. It took God to see beyond the presentations, the unsympathetic and judgmental attitudes of the only believers we knew in our immediate environment. Whenever we were told, “Give your life to Christ,” our minds would go, “And be like you? No way!” It took God to see the love modeled by Christ after whom Christianity is fashioned. It took God to see Christlikeness in the lives of those who though imperfect but were more determined to be like Christ than to drag unbelievers across the fence of hell to heaven. Heaven loses its appeal if it is going to be occupied by such sour and spiteful souls.
If Christ came like that, it would have taken more than miracles to make a dent of difference in the then world. Even if He managed to touch any then, He would have been long forgotten by now. Christ left indelible marks in the lives and history of mankind because He went outside the constraints of religion: He was light, He was love, He was joy, He was peace, He was kind and caring toward everyone and in everything He did. Check out His miracles, they weren’t to show off power or His God-connection. Compassion was a consistent factor in every message He preached, in every miracle He performed. That is why until date, His light still shines in a progressively turbulent and darkening world. We cannot be Christians and live contrary to Christ. We cannot marry Christ to religion and succeed.
The world is the way it is because of religion. It moves us to fight what we should uphold and destroy what we should build. It highlights the specks in the eyes of others, oblivious of the log that clogs our sight and vision. The most discouraging thing about religion is that it is inconsiderate of anything contrary. Rather than unite, it divides us. It is a close minded terror – religion is a cult: Christianity a lifestyle, patterned after our Lord Jesus Christ.
I know because like Paul, I was once very religious. Isn’t it surprising that after love won me over to Christ, I forgot and followed the very path that once discouraged and disgusted me. It is so easy to see what everyone else is not doing right. When others are on stage, we know better how they should act and recall every line they miss. On our seats, we play better than athletes sweating it out in the field and the coach who trained them. When it’s another’s business, we turn experts with proprietary rights to wisdom. When someone errs, we conclude that judgment should run its course until we are the ones in the dock. We are so right until it gets to our turn: that is what religion does to us.
My life began to make a difference when I learned to seek and to follow Christ and not men or their designed approach to God. My life changed when I set pleasing God above making everyone else around me happy to the detriment of my own peace of mind. We cannot please everyone but we can at least find the right way and learn consistence as we walk in it. We may not have it all together but we don’t give up. We cannot know Christ without a personal experience of who He is. We cannot love Christ without loving those He has placed in our path. We cannot live Christ until we seek Him, learn His ways, and practice it even if we fail every once in a while. May God deliver us from religion and light up the way, the truth, and the life that is truly Christ, amen.
Glory!