Can I just say, I loved, like seriously loooooved, write it on a notebook like a highschooler, L-O-V-E-D the movie Divergent.

And come on, lets face it, I’d totally be Dauntless.

(Quick movie recap from the author, Veronica Roth: “In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.”)

 

I live a crazy life.

I’m 32 and I still drink my coffee full strength, even after 5 pm.

I’ve got 3 kids all under the age of 6.

And, I drive a mini-van without a spare tire in the back.

 

Need I say more, I’m Dauntless, baby.

 

Jason says, I’d be Candor because I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut.

He’s probably right but since I think I’m Dauntless, he’ll pay for it later.  Maybe he’ll have to jump off a train or something.

I do have a point tonight.

I think.

Oh yeah, it’s this.

Don’t forget to live.

 

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.

Galatians 5:1-3 (The Message)

 

Sometimes I feel like I’m stuck in a faction of Christianity.

I think we all do.

There are rules to keep.

Right ways to live.

Wrong things that shouldn’t be said.

Order that has to be kept.

And the truth is, it’s stifling.

 

Like choosing only one faction to live the rest of your life in.

 

But rules were never the point.

Jesus set us free so that we could live. . . free.

 

But the truth is, I don’t know how to live a life free.

I’ve been conditioned to follow rules.

We all have been.

And when God goes a little bit quiet in my life I tend to grasp for rules.

You know some sort of order.

I get sucked back into a Christian-faction mindset.

I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

Galatians 5:4-6 (The Message)

And so I guess it comes back to trusting him and living a life of love.

That’s how we do this freedom thing.

And that’s the thing that keeps us held together.