Sterotypes.

As I search for new found freedom, a thought occurred to me last night. I tend to care to much about what people think. I think sometimes I have theses superpower brain waves that can scan someone while they are in thought and know exactly what they are thinking about me at that moment. Obviously not. So I build a whole fantasy of thoughts or expectations of what people are thinking of me which in turn binds me and keeps me slave to their so called expectations. Or mine.

During lint I felt God calling me to embrace his freedom. About three years ago I found his freedom from fear. Now he is calling me to escape from judgement, and expectations of others.

I have come to the conclusion that I allow myself to soak in stereo types. If you think about it you call it stereo for a reason. Stereo is loud. It is noise, chaos. We allow noise, and chaos to come into our minds and it drowns out any real though of reason.

My first attempt with defeating this overlying blanket of judgement of others, is to first quit putting judgement and stereo types on others. I must shut off the stereo. But how?

This may sound like a theological mess, but it gives me insight to how to be free from judgement. So often we view our Christian walk as a personal one, with Christ. And it is. But what if it was more than that? What if it was a corporate walk with all of human kind & God? So often in the Old Testament God goes to an entire nation, or a group of people. So here is my thought. What if God looks down on us as a nation? There are lots of us outdoing and out going each other. We are running the race but when was it that we looked behind us to help up our friend who has fallen down? If our church fails, but our neighboring church succeeds don't we all fail? As I see others doing amazing things in Christ, I want to be on their team. I think some of us want to say, I wish it were me. If we are are all united, then we would begin cheering on others around us and less likely to judge our neighbors for their failures. For if they are failing then so to are we.

So this is how I react now. Stereo out, and muted silence in. I see someone that is ahead of me running, I cheer from behind. I see that someone has stopped I stop with them and encourage them to run. Because it doesn't matter who finishes the race first. What matters is that we all finish the race.

In Isaiah 52:2 it says, " Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck. O captive daughter of Zion."

The Israelites seemed to always be slave to something. And it was God's first ambition not to justify his people but to set them free. After the Israelites were released from bondage in Babylon. many stayed. That was a puzzling thought. Why do they stay? Go! You are Free! Run! But the reality of it is we all find some sense of home in bondage. Sometimes their comfort in bondage, is security, for some it is all they have known. I am willing to bet, we do the same. It seems easier to remain in whatever is keeping us slave, because at least it is consistent, or secure. With freedom, it feels like a scary journey into the unknown.

We enslave our self with all sorts of stereo, loud, thoughts that flood our mind, with expectations we assume we must live up to or live by. The fact of the matter is, we don't. Christ set us free but we are still living in bondage of stereo types. We remain comfortable staying in the boundaries we have been taught. I dare say, that freedom back to a home we have forgotten or never experience is more the adventure I am ready to see.

We can stop living in stereo.