March 19, 2018 Chapters 30 Why We Worry, Why We Judge & Chapter 31 The Choice is Yours

     People will often ask me how I can hear someone's confession and not think less of them when I see them outside the confessional. The answer is really simple. It is because I know how much I am a sinner. I look at my own faults enough to know that I really have no business judging anyone else's faults. My mom use to say it this way, "Each time you point a finger at someone else, you have three pointing back at you."
    The simple point McLaren makes in this chapter is that when we give our lives to God and to God's ways, God takes care of us. Anxiety, Judgmental-ism, and Self-loathing (not realizing we are loved) all diminish when we give ourselves completely to God.

     In Chapter 31, Jesus reminds us that each of us have a decision to make. Which gate will we enter; which road will we travel; which vine will we eat from; which house will we build? We each have a choice and it is a choice that we need to make each day. It is not as simple as I made this choice years ago and I am set. I make the choice to live my faith each time I make any kind of decision because in each and every decision of my life I either affirm or deny my original choice.
     I play a little bit of Texas Hold-em poker. In each and every hand I have an opportunity to go "all-in"--to throw all my chips into the pot. Following Jesus is a choice---but it is a choice that asks me to go all in--to give it everything I am.