You
stand before a gate. Though you cannot see beyond it, what lies there draws you. More voices than you can identify cry,
"No, don't go there!" - Fear whispers, "Something terrible will happen!"
- Intimidation snickers: "You?
Go through? You can't even open
the gate."
- Status quo
states, "You've always lived here."
- Complacency adds, "And you always will."
A crowd you want to please chants in chorus,
"Stay with us. Stay with us." Some smile and coax. Some cry and plead. Yet one voice-one unmistakable voice-calls, "Step
through the gate." Buffalo-riding
& gate-opening 101 Recently at an outdoor fair in Colorado Springs, I rode a mechanical
bull — or more accurately, a mechanical
buffalo. Regardless, I didn't just pose atop the beast. In spite of everything that
could have kept me from it, I got on that bronco and rode. Shortly before riding the bull, I stepped through
a gate. In spite of everything that could have kept me from it, I left behind one way of living life and embarked on a totally
different one. I still experience ups and downs. I still have spills. Yet, surprisingly, the spills don't shatter me. In this
new place, I cannot express the freedom and joy I've found, except to say, "Check out the picture of me riding the mechanical
bull.
For me, that picture illustrates
living life, not as a religious Christian, but as a friend of God. It reminds me of the promise in Malachi 4:2, "And
you will go out and leap like calves [or mechanical-bull riders?] released from the stall" (NIV). You know what? It's alarmingly easy to name the name
of Jesus, yet stop short of gates he has opened. It's alarmingly easy to get trapped in behavior that appears godly
yet produces what God hates. It's alarmingly easy to become a "religious Christian," imprisoned inside "stalls"
Christ died to free us from. - Maybe you've been highly irritated
or deeply hurt by religious Christians. As a result, you're skeptical about anything related to God — especially the
Christian God. Yet strangely it seems he is drawing you.
- Maybe
all your efforts at living life have left you exhausted and stuck. You're disappointed with yourself, with the church, with
God. Frankly, he seems demanding and distant. You have no confidence in your ability to hear his voice. You doubt he has any
desire to know you intimately or to trust you with important exploits. You do not see yourself as a friend of God —
yet the idea stirs a longing deep within you, like a gentle breath rekindling an almost-extinguished coal.
- Maybe you're living life with a growing sense of unrest. Something is calling you to venture
where you haven't gone before. You have no clue where this venture might take you. By nature, you don't like risk. Frightened,
yet fascinated, you wonder, "Can this be God? Do I dare follow?"
- Maybe you love Jesus. You want to go wherever he leads. Ah, but where he's taking you looks quite different
from what you expected — and opposition from surprising sources (within you and around you) has blindsided, confused
and paralyzed you.
Living
life as a friend of God requires removing whatever hinders you from knowing his voice. Living life as a friend of
God involves boldly going wherever he goes. It means letting go of some relationships — and then finding deeper
ones, as you connect more deeply with God himself, and he connects you with other people whom he calls friends. Living life as a friend of God involves
pain. Yet, pressing through the pain, you find deep fulfillment. It requires risk. It releases joy.
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| Photo courtesy cjthreephotography.com |
Key truths for living
life I'm Deborah
Brunt, founder of key truths Open Gates LLC. For decades, I lived life as a religious
Christian. Most of those years, I truly knew Christ. I did not know how much of what I thought and believed, did
and said, reflected religious stuff I'd been taught, rather than the mind of Christ. I still don't see everything clearly. I still find religious gunk clinging to me. But
- Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! — I've stepped through that first crucial gate. Now, I'm learning how to live life as a friend of God. Taking keys Jesus offers, I'm stepping
through the next gate, and the next. Occasionally, I even mount a mechanical buffalo and ride! In the process, I'm connecting with others who are living
life the same way — or who desperately want to do so. I'm telling what I learn from those ahead of me and alongside
me on the path. I'm telling the sometimes stunning, sometimes hilarious, always life-giving things Jesus teaches me. I've found: When you're living life
as a friend of God, he always wants to take you through another open gate. To help you leap through a few, I'm speaking out,
offering key truths for living life.
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