Porsches and Principles

I feel like I start a lot of these with "So lately I've been thinking . . . ."

So, um, recently I've been . . . musing . . . on some stuff.  In particular, I've been thinking about the role of principles in spirituality.

Principles can be useful tools.  They can help us understand how things work, or how best to achieve a desired outcome.  They can assist in revealing truth to us.

However, I believe there is a danger in becoming too reliant on principles to guide us through life.  I understand why, principles help us have an illusion of control.  If we master these three principles, or follow those four steps, we will end up exactly where we're aiming.  And if we find ourselves off track, we just need to go back and see which principle we're failing to correctly apply.

And I do think it's possible to read the words of Jesus, or of Paul or John, and come away with a set of instructions on how to live life.  But I'm pretty sure that misses the point.  Jesus kept saying he came to bring life, he didn't say much about handing out rules.  Jesus invited a lot of people to follow him, he didn't hand out many pamphlets with six easy steps to becoming a better Christian. 

Even wonderful things like grace or freedom can be reduced to a set or pinciples.  But that seems to diminish them in some way.

It's like having a Porsche in your driveway with no engine.  You can wash and wax that sucker 'til you can use the reflection to check your teeth, but it's not going anywhere with no engine.  And a car that doesn't go anywhere really isn't much of a car.  It's missing a vital piece, lacking it's main function.

We can pretty up our lives with a bunch of nice sounding principles.  We can even talk about love and grace and all that good stuff, but as long as it's just intellectual assent to some ideas, it's probably not going to change our lives.

I think the engine, the real agent of motion and change, that which really causes transformation and enlightenment, is not an idea.  I think it's a Person.  I think it's when we engage Jesus himself that we begin to come alive.  Jesus offered us something much better than a set of principles to live by.  He offers us life with Him.  It was said that he would be called Immanuel, God with us. 

Even Jesus didn't live by a set of principles.  He said that he only did what he saw his Father do.  The life Jesus modeled was not one of mastering rules and regulations, it is simply one that is constantly engaged with Father. 

And I know it's kind of scary to let go of explicit instructions for living life.  I know it's uncomfortable to set aside principles that promise to always have an answer for our questions.

Trying to simply engage Father in the midst of life can be a messy process.  We might hear things wrong.  We might make mistakes.  But I'm starting to believe that those are very beautiful mistakes.  I think a misstep when journeying with Father is so much better than jumping through hoops without him.

And maybe it's in that mess and confusion that we finally start to really see how good he is.  I generally don't have the first clue what I'm doing.  I often feel foolish, stumbling around like a drunk toddler.  But I am being won by his goodness.  I am being won by his love.  I'm learning that as I begin to walk with him, even tripping over my feet leads to a wonderful destination.

It leads straight into his loving arms.