Get To, Not Have To
I’m not sure where you’re at with Jesus right now. I’m not sure if you’ve been in a relationship with Him for a long time - praying and pounding the pavement of faith for decades. Maybe you’re new to the ideas of spirituality or even the gospel. Maybe you landed on this post and don’t feel any feelings about God. If so - I’m so glad you’re here. Keep reading!
I guess where I’m getting at is this: before I actually met Jesus, and even in the years just after I started really stepping into a relationship with Him - I got a really strange taste in my mouth for what it meant to be a Christian. I became a follower of Jesus in high school, when it seemed that the main motivation for getting teenagers in church was to get them OUT of bad places they shouldn’t be. There were talks about staying on the straight and narrow, about making wise decisions and living a more pure life than the heathens around me. (FYI - I was the heatheniest of the heathens)
In other seasons, my walk with God was still largely based on what I shouldn't do or what I was supposed to do. Anyone else feel me? I heard that I SHOULD study the Bible so I could understand deep theological ideas and have a better awareness of the complexity of God. I heard that I was SUPPOSED TO serve, because it was my duty as a believer. I was SUPPOSED to pray, because it was good for me and other people needed my prayers.
These of course, weren’t the only messages I heard - but they were predominate ones.
Now, as a woman who has been walking with God for 18 years I'm a few years into realizing - none of those are things I should do. They're things I GET to do. They're not like lima beans that I should eat because they're healthy (are lima beans even healthy still?). They're rhythms, routines, and practices that have been purchased for me by the power of the cross - ones I can step into and experience heaven here on earth.
I guess what I’d like to propose in this blog post is that we hold for a second the notion that maybe God wants us to shift our perspective and start to see this life in Christ as the things we GET to do, rather than the things we are supposed to be doing or a list of things we should avoid. I'd like to cut to the chase and say: I think holiness is less about abstaining from bad stuff and checking off a list. I think it's more about stepping into the abundant reality of things we GET TO DO.
“I’d like to cut to the chase and say: I think holiness is less about abstaining from bad stuff and checking off a list. I think it’s more about stepping into the abundant reality of things we GET TO DO. ”
From what I read in scripture, I find that He came for us and made a way - at just the right time, when we were still sinners. He wasn’t expecting us to perform, He wasn’t redeeming us so that we’d be His trophies of excellence - but rather He was initiating a relationship wherein we would continually need Him, and continually be extended His identity since we aren’t much on our own.
He never points to us as being a mindless army, instead He calls us his friends. His ambassadors. His coheirs and co-laborers in ministry.
So here we are, sitting on the most eternally-stunning invitation to step into a beautiful relationship with Jesus that is all about Him giving us what we need and yet... we’re functioning under a fabricated weight of man-made expectations: the shoulds and supposed responsibilities that He never named.
Dance Stand Run is all about learning that this is the life we GET TO lead, rather than feeling the burden of what we HAVE TO do. I think this message could free so many women up: giving them a taste of Jesus that is not only appealing, but soul-satisfying. The book comes out on October 24th - want to join us as we dance in grace, stand our holy ground, and run on mission? You sure don’t have to. But you might find that you get to and that’s a whole more simple.
