Our Boundless God. . .




 We love boundaries. We are surrounded by both visible, and invisible boundaries. My bedroom has walls, and a door. . . My home has doors, windows, roof, and walls. . . My yard has a fence around it dividing my property from our neighbors. 

People have what is called their personal space, the distance at which you expect casual acquaintances to stay beyond. We feel uncomfortable when this shell of comfort is invaded. . . riding a packed subway, or otherwise being in a densely packed crowd can make us feel very ill at ease. 

The boundaries of the varied political divisions our world is divided into, nations, states, counties, cities, townships. . . we take comfort and pride in our association with these varied boundaries. 

Boundaries take many forms. Our actions and interactions are governed by our cultures acceptable rules of behavior. To enter into a different culture exposes how deeply ingrained and unconscious these “normal” rules of behavior are. 

Things we take for granted as normal, are suddenly turned upside down, and we feel what is known as “culture shock”. To enter into, as I did in being transferred to Germany in the service, to what might be thought of as a very similar culture to ours, was surprisingly disorienting and disconcerting to me. 

I went through a significant period of adjustment, and unease while I adapted to the German way of doing things. Personal space, eye contact, familiarity, polite eating habits, personal hygiene, acceptable conversation. . . and on and on. . . things we take for granted as the norm. . . the only way things are universally done, when immersed in another culture are shown to be extremely fluid and relative to where you are on the world’s map. 

It was very uncomfortable to find myself in a culture where I knew nothing about acceptable behavior. Leaving the shores of the U.S. I had left behind all the rules that had been lifelong familiars to me. I discovered how much I liked, and missed my known boundaries. 

I believe that there are spiritual parallels. There is comfort in rules. . . The Old Testament commandments are comforting and reassuring. Follow these 10 or 100 or 1000 laws, and God will be happy with you. We greatly desire to have a specific code to follow. . . don’t take God’s name in vain. . . don’t lie. . . don’t murder. . . don’t steal. . . don’t covet. . . 

The problem with such boundaries, is in how limited and flawed they are. Which of the 10 commandments have I broken, if I badly beat someone, but don’t kill them? No matter how many more new rules you add to such finite laws, they will never be complete. It is said that the Mosaic Law code had more than 600 laws, and still there was endless quibbling and arguing about their application. 

The U.S. has been a country for almost 250 years. It has thousands of legislative bodies that spend their entire time drafting new laws, with no end in sight. Legions of lawmakers. . . Legions of lawyers. . . miles of shelf space for the books containing all these laws and still more are daily written. . . 

We serve a God without boundaries. He is not limited by time, or space. He is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. There are no boundaries to His Power, His mercy, His forgiveness, or His grace, and likewise there are no boundaries to His Laws:  

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. 

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. 

(Matthew 22:36-40) 

All thy heart. . . all thy soul. . . all thy mind. . . and love thy neighbor as thyself. . . These commandments are boundless. . . There are no limits here. There are no questions here. . . either you are loving God with everything you are, and loving your neighbor with the same limitless love as you love yourself or you are not. 

There is no way to hide behind the interpretation of a rule. . . no way to make excuses for the incompleteness or mis-understanding of the law. . . You are either following these 2 commandments or you are not. . . 

There is great purity and clarity, in simplicity. I try to focus on these commandments in all that I do. . .

I love you my Lord. . . 
Please help me be more obedient to You. . . 
Please help me better follow Your Laws. . . 
I love you my God. . .

<3

Dave 

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