[tweaking the rules of the road]

I tried driving the speed limit for a while there when I got back from LA. Trendy, I know. But seriously, I'm really sick and tired of living a crazy, busy, American-paced life, so I figured I'd start with something easy - driving the speed limit. And it was ridiculous.

You don't realize how incredibly slow 55 mph is on a two-lane highway until you try to obey it. And you don't realize how slow you're actually supposed to go in town until you become conscious of that.

However, when my focus changed from getting to my destination as fast as possible to simply arriving eventually, I became more aware of what I was passing. I became more conscious of the laws of the road, and I began to realize that I've obeyed the speed limit in the past a lot like I've obeyed God - close enough.

In his book Radical, David Platt talks a lot about the way the U.S. has misunderstood and even manipulated the gospel to fit our comforts, our culture and what we like. If the Bible is our speed limit - our law and rules of the road - we've decided that 5 or 10 over here or there isn't so bad.

I like a God who loves me but not always a holy God who pours out wrath on those who reject Him. I like a God who comforts me in hard times but not always a God who says hard times will come because I have chosen to follow Him. I like a God who is safe and easy to worship but not always a God who I may have less friends because of. I like Jesus' command to love my neighbor when my neighbor is easy to love. It's hard to obey another of His that says forgive, especially when I don't think a person necessarily deserves it. And so I pick and choose what parts of God I like and focus only on them.

But Platt warns against this very thing. "As a Christian, it would be a grave mistake to come to Jesus and say, 'Let me hear what you have to say, and then I’ll decide whether or not I like it,'" he writes. "If you approach Jesus this way, you will never truly hear what he has to say" (20).

This is so easy and so tempting though you know? I want to hear just the verses I can obey. Just the passages that are familiar. Just the God that I want to think of rather than the God that is. I pick and chose where God's commands don't really need to be obeyed or where a little tweak (like driving 5 over) isn't that big of a deal. That is, of course, until five becomes ten. And then maybe ten becomes 15. And then bending little things becomes an excuse to bend others, and pretty soon, I find myself with a comfortable gospel once again - one that has been bent to my comfort level rather than God's standards. One that I can obey. One that's easy to follow. One that makes me feel like I'm a good enough person. One that I've measured according to everyone else rather than the God who authored it.

It's a good thing God works in and through and inspite of me, though, on this road called life. The cross becomes greater in the midst of this, and the reality of who I am not starts to become pretty evident. God didn't ask me to pick and choose what parts of Him I like. God didn't ask me to tweak His commands to fit my opinions. And yet everything in me sways towards that.

So for now I'm going to keep attempting the speed limit. For now I'm going to try and focus on the journey rather than just arriving. For now I'm going to be the annoying one on Highway 30 attempting to actually stay at 55. And by the grace of God, I want to grow in my obedience to Who He actually is, not Who I've created Him to be through my opinions, my tweaked Gospel and my comfort levels.