What Has Value?

There is a parable in the Bible about wheat and tares (begins at Matthew 13:24), in which the workers found that weeds were all through the wheat crop. When they asked the owner what to do he told them to leave everything alone, that the weeds would be separated out at harvest time.

This is very plainly telling us to be tolerant and let God figure it out, in His time.

I love the Tao Te Ching and it's view of God, because it says that anything we come up with can never define God, just as we can never fully define what it means to be human. And if we can't define God, and we can't define exactly what it means to be human, why do we start thinking that we can define what it means to worship God or be 'called according to His purpose'?

There is a respectful reverence there, in not seeking to define God or judge people, and in waiting and listening for God.

I feel the need to reveal a little of my own story, as it relates to the above.

As I grew up, our family went to church several days and nights of the week, and I attended private Bible school Monday through Friday. All of our family and friends were Christian too. It was a pretty one-sided experience, though not bad.

I went to Bible College, but had some maturity problems and dropped out in my 3rd year. All my plans of becoming a minister were blown. I felt disgraced at home and at my church. I felt I had failed at the only thing I truly was meant to do in life.

I had trouble adjusting, but I found work. I fell in with a group of guys who loved to drink, and I went through a time when I was very self destructive. At one point I realized how bad I had let things get, and I prayed for God to do something, anything, or kill me. One or the other.

The very next day, a person was put in my life that literally turned me around. If it wasn't an angel from God, then I don't know what.

I started going to church again.

A couple of years later I completely fell for a woman, and we married. But it turned out that she was not motivated towards God or church, and over the years we were successful in uncovering many other areas of incompatibility.

We had two great kids. It wasn't all bad.

During our marriage I had still tried to attend church, although it was hit & miss.

When 9/11 happened, I was in shock. And over the next couple of years I felt like one thing after another was taken from me. I couldn't be proud of my Texas heritage, because Dubya was making all Texans look like fools. I couldn't be proud of being Republican because the Neo-Cons had taken over the party and were making all Republicans look like criminals. I couldn't be proud of being a Christian, because the Religious Right was saying that if I wasn't pro-Bush then I was anti-American and anti-Christian. And finally I couldn't even be proud to be an American because we were attacking Iraq, who had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. All the intel turned out to be manufactured, and we had a baboon of a leader that thought it was all a joke. I was disgusted with the church, that all of Christianity was now in bed with such criminals! WWJD?

I fell away from the church. I still loved God, but for a time I refused to call myself a Christian. I reasoned that the peaceful philosophy behind Aikido was the healthiest, and seriously began studying Eastern philosophies. I found a lot of valuable wisdom, and for me these philosophies began to reawaken and amplify my relationship with God.

I found I could not get away from God, and He brought me back to what I feel is authentically following Christ. After all, I never stopped having an awe-filled wonder of Him and a deep fascination with the person of Jesus Christ. And I can't get enough of Jesus. I am consumed by him!

I know this, without a doubt- The relationships we have with others are deeply spiritual bonds, and as such are way more important than laws, customs, ideas, or anything else. Herein lies integrity, honor, love, dedication. In a way (not Jesus' intent but my own, for what it's worth), these spiritual bonding relationships are the wheat, and our casual encounters with things and people that we treat as things, are the tares. Only the wheat has any value.

ADDENDUM:

After I wrote the above, I realized that many may not understand what I was trying to say. I did not explicitly state what I was getting at in the writing above, but I don't want anyone to miss it. So let me explain:

1. We are not here to judge our neighbor. Not only is it not our job, but judgments, being external things, are useless to us. It's like a foreign currency that we cannot spend. Worthless!

2. I related my story as an illustration of the idea of 'process' which is why none of us is in a position (literally) to judge another. None of us watching the tennis match have the view from the referee's seat, above. Only God can see the whole picture.

3. In my story is a definite turning away from external religion, external bits of societal 'bling' (like pride in this or that), to an internal seeking of God, and internal communion with God. On an individual level only what is inside lasts. Neither moth, rust, nor thieves can touch it!