Isn’t mans biggest complaint with God that God doesn’t do as man wants?

And is it also true that mans greatest worship of God is that God satisfied his deepest wants?

Every religion known to man is really a delicate dance where man convinces himself he can get God to do as man pleases or to get  necessary support or validation and this happens “IF and only IF” certain religious behavior is followed closely.

A religious man who obey’s these rules will usually find a place of leadership in a religious delivery system, where others look to him or her on how to get God’s favor too. This has the effect of ratifying these beliefs and elevating those closest to the system to power.

Overtime the beliefs are not questioned and further back still, no one questions any longer if God has actually attended this effort at all, except those with the greatest doubt. Those who are seen as dissidents. The unbelievers and outsiders.

But a stopped clock is right twice a day, so religious traditions continue. Those that have all the answers, do not permit any real questions.

BUT….

What if a new idea came along?

What if an idea said; “You can’t manipulate God and make him your subject.”

What if this idea said: “You can know aspects of God, and as a result you will really get to know yourself.”

What if this God’s ways were such that they force us to experience the full bandwidth of humanity, rather than help us escape from it?

If so, then we could finally liberate ourselves from our systems and varied prisons of choice and habit.

People who lived like this would be an amazing counter culture. They would be like a city within our cities. They would be distinct or “Called Out” by the liberty in which they lived among us.

These would be people that no longer used religion to endorse their agendas of control, but they would bring liberty to those in bondage, and clarity and peace about their human experience.

Faithfulness to this kind of system wouldn’t look religious at all. It would be the enviable life. The organizational rules of play would be shared and certainly not burdensome.

• Not pious, but inspiring.
• Generosity would not have expectations attached.
• Belief wouldn’t be “extra-terrestrial” but on the plane of common life.
• Diligence may be reflected in the system, but it wouldn’t be for the sake of the system.

Like a non-stick surface, this type of people would have open hands to all the culture offers:

• Receiving but not possessing,
• Savoring, but not hoarding,
• Utilizing, but not wasting,
• Creating, but not destroying.
• Motivated by doing right for others.

This would be a kingdom and not a religion, and its King would be a king who really reigns, not one who bows.

This would be a place where the gates remained open to all who would desire to be a part.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered its construction had already begun.