Pullin' Threads

I really HATE sweaters. Not really. I'm just a guy who hates religion. To add to the confusion: I love Jesus. To the outsider that seems like a contradiction, but to the formerly religious it makes perfect sense. To the currently religious it makes no sense. I grew up in church and I have recently come to the fact that all the dressings we add to Christianity are just religion. The relationships we have in life is true Christianity. Modern Institutional Christianity has cheapened everything. They have taken something pure and true and beautiful and turned it into a formula. They turned it into a performance. It's all an act. Granted it was probably all out of pure motives, but the end result is still a bastard. Bastard. Interesting imagery. Where is Institutional Christianity father? Is it Christ? Read Christs words. Read the sermon on the mount. Read the Beatitudes. Tell me if modern Christianity is there. I don't see it. To clarify I am not attacking the people in the institutions but the institutions themselves. I love the people but they've been lied to. This is my way of trying to tell them the truth. Not that I have it all right. I know I'm still on the journey. I'm still learning. I know I am wrong about some things, i just can't tell you about what. But that is the point. You are on a journey as well and you are not all right or wrong. Ask questions. Think about what you believe. Learn things. The more information you have the more of an informed decision you can make. I used to have opinions on things and the only information I had was from one person. If a person wanted me to have an opinion like his they would only give me information they wanted me to have. I want people to have the other side. Make your own decisions. Don't be afraid to be wrong. You can change later. You can grow. Not making decisions for fear of being wrong stunts your growth. The most mature people have made the most mistakes.
To those who think I am just bitter or that I have been hurt by the church let me assure you that that is only partially true. I didn't leave the institutional Church because someone let me down or hurt me or lied to me. I left because I found out it was a lie. Things held so dearly were made up traditions. We were all playing make believe. I always thought that something was wrong. I never thought I would find out that it actually was! In hindsight I am a little bitter. People did let me down and hurt me. They did lie. I didn't know it at the time but looking back i see them. After learning things for myself I see now that there were lies. They may have been unintentional or even with the best of intentions but a lie is a lie is a lie.
That leads me to now. I still have people I love on the inside. I still have people I love leading the inside. They probably think I am out to get them but I just want them free. Too many people are burdened with obligations or sacrifices or to be a good little boy or girl to make God love them. Wouldn't life be so much more free if they actually believed that God already loved them? That they didn't have to try so hard? That the sweater of religion they are wearing is suffocating them? It is a beautiful sunshiny day and some are wearing a sweater. Some sweaters are thick and some are thin but it is still unbearably hot in that thing.
In the Old Testament it was cold and lonely and we had to dress warm to get to God. God was around us but not inside of us. In the New Testament we have God in us. Everything is more beautiful. We are made warm by God. Some of us still want to get warm on our own. We want to get to Gods warmth by our own power. With our own sweater. Even though we can be perfectly fine without it. Are you still trying to get to God on your own? Are you still trying to perform to get God to notice you? To get others to notice you? It's OK. God sees you. God loves you. God wants you to take off the sweater. It probably won't come off all at once though. A sweater like religion is knitted right on your body and often wrapped too tightly. It has to be taken apart one thread at a time. And if it did come right off it would be too easy to put it back on. It's a little harder when its a mess of thread piled on the floor. Darin Hufford gets the thanks for starting me out with this analogy. After messing with some religious minds I had a conversation with him. I was struggling with whether or not to keep asking religious people questions or just leave them where they are.
He told me, "this stuff kind of reminds me of a loose thread on a sweater. When you start pulling at it, the entire sweater comes unraveled. One question leads to another and another and another. Before you know it, your entire religion is laying on the floor in a pile.

I've found two kinds of people in this world. Thread pullers like you and me, and nonthread pullers."
So say goodbye to your sweaters. I'm comin' for them...