Your life does not belong to you. Does that scare you? It did me. The very thought that someone other than myself actually owned my body, my thoughts, my emotions, my time, my money, and even my forever frightened me. How could this true? I choose when I get up and when I go to bed. I decide what to eat for breakfast and what clothes to wear. I chose my job. I chose my wife. How then could it be true that my life, that very being that I possess, is not my possession?
Bob Ross Theology, Or “Isn’t that a happy little tree?”
I’ve never been very good painter. I remember watching Bob Ross on PBS when I was younger and thinking that I could paint like him if I just had the right materials. I didn’t have quality oil paints, but I had the craft store kind that comes in big squeeze bottles. I didn’t have professional brushes or what’s that knife thing that he used to cut happy little trees into the canvas? Well, I didn’t have one of those either.
That didn’t stop me from pulling out a piece of butcher paper, squeezing some orange and green paint onto a Styrofoam plate, pulling out an actual knife, and to trying to cut my first happy little tree onto the crude paper canvas that was taped to the kitchen wall.
As I made my first incision with a paring knife, ready to sweep the blade in a downward motion to cut my first tree trunk, orange though it was, I actually sliced right through the paper and the tree trunk became an impromptu fresco right there in the middle of Mom’s kitchen.
No matter, I thought, as I went on to paint in clouds and a mountain scene with a deer taking water from a meandering spring. I delved further and further into my masterpiece mixing up whatever colors I could on that throwaway plate. When I was through and had brushed my name onto the lower right corner of the work of art, I stood back to admire the creation of my eight year old self. And I was pleased.
The Creator’s Rights
Today, I might look back at that first creation and realize that my natural scene probably falls closer to abstract art than a realistic depiction of evergreen trees and mountains springs. But it was my hand and my creativity that made the painting what it was. No matter the quality or level of expertise, what I had done was mine. I owned it.
What I chose to do with it, whether giving it to my mother to be framed and hung high above the mantle as a work of absolute art or taped in the even more coveted place of the front of the refrigerator, the choice remained my own. I could rip it from the wall and throw it in the trash and still be well within my rights as the paintings owner. Put simply, the creator always has possession of the creation.
The Master Craftsman
You were not created by an amateur when God’s knife cut you from the earth, when He formed you in His hands. You were made by a master craftsman. While my trees were all orange, for lack of resources, you are the hue that you all are, because God’s color palette is infinite.
But unlike my painting, you were not created to be hung on a wall, lifeless and stagnant. You were created for action. You were created to act on the knowledge of God’s sacrificial love for you and to love Him in return. That is the greatest commandment. When God hewn you from the dirt and formed you in your mother’s womb, He did so that you would live a life set apart for Him.
You are not your own because God painted you and despite building inside of you the ability to choose between what is right and what is wrong, you were created to choose what is right.
Despite having the option to reject God, you were created to choose to follow him.
Despite living in a world whose gospel message is that you are your own and can do and live in whatever way pleases you, you were created to be in the world but not follow the world’s pattern. The message that World gives you plain and simple is a lie.
You Were Created for a Purpose
You were created for a purpose and at that moment of salvation, when you passed from death to life, you were made right in God’s sight. Only at the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and only at the hand of the Maker, the master craftsman, can you ever be truly Holy in God’s sight. Yet God says in the clearest of language that you are to be holy as He is holy.
If that does not interest you, if deliberately choosing to restructure your life in a way that pleases God above and beyond pleasing yourself, you should close this page and read no further. This is not for you.
But if you are serious in your desire to live righteously, a life of holiness or in other words, a life set apart from the World, then read on.
What it Will Take
It will take more than just reading God’s word. It will take more than just prayer. While we are made righteous because of the blood of Christ, holiness and living the Holy Life requires action. You got to do something and often times, you got to stop doing some things.
The Holy Life is not something we just dream about or expect God will do entirely for us. Truly, without the work of the Holy Spirit in you, the Holy Life is not possible. But the same is true for action on your part. Without you taking practical steps to aligning yourself with God’s design for your life, Holiness will ALWAYS be beyond your reach.
In the mid 1600’s a pastor, Jeremy Taylor, set out to write down practical wisdom – what he called “rules” – to help his patron live a holy life. In his Rules and Exercises of Holy Living, Taylor laid out step by step practical tips and suggestions on effectively dealing with the difficulties the obstacles that must be overcome for the Holy Life. His style of writing is a little outdated, but the rules – those bite-sized chunks of practical wisdom are no more relevant than they are today and in this generation.
My Mission
It is my mission to share that wisdom with today’s world. I believe that most Christians want to be practical in their faith, but they don’t know how. Well, I want to learn to be practical too. So let’s do it together.