Religion is for the Dependent.

I have come to a strong resolution. Not a conclusion, by any means, just a large answer to an even larger question.

This question is one that everyone has to face. It is a question that consumed every life, some until the day that they die. It's a question that, even to those who know the answer will still need to be reminded of it.

This is the question of identity. Who am I? What is the reason for my existence? I believe the answer is different for all of us. Life leads us down different roads, because we are given different things, and make different decisions.

However, the answer for myself is clear. I am a child of God. I live my life by his hand, his guidance, leading my every direction. He has called me to be the ultimate lover. I mean this by no means sexually, although someday, I'm sure this will be part of it as well.

What I mean is, I am called to love. To show grace to the broken, to show mercy to those that wrong me.it is the sole reason for my existence.

God has called me to be a stronger person. He knows what he has set aside for me, and, while I do not, I have faith that his plan is the best for me.

This is where this gets important. Where it gets deep, and where I could piss some people off.

I did not find this because of a religion. I didn't follow a set of rules created by a church or denomination. I came to this resolution with the help of God, and Him alone. He has set upon my heart an inherent need to love other people. There have been times in my life where I have built up so many walls in my heart that I haven't been able to feel love from others to myself. Yet, even in those times, I was loving other people. It's something inside of me that I wouldn't change, even if I had the opportunity.

I titled this "Religion Is For The Dependent" because I truly believe that. Religion is an idea or mindset of moral conformity. A set of rules laid out by a church or group that is put in place to keep people together. Not to BRING people together.

Let me out it this way: here in the USA, we like fences. They keep in our animals, our children, and keep people we don't want in away. In Australia, they use watering holes. They know that, no matter where their animals wander, they always know where to find water, and they'll always return for it.

These are perfect descriptions of religion versus living as we are called. Religion puts up fences, boundaries, to keep people in, to draw people to what they believe is the heart of Christ, or whatever else. These fences are also very good at keeping out the people they don't want: the broken, the poor, the ones who look like they've been thru hell, because chances are good that they have.

We are called to live out Christ like a watering hole. There are no boundaries. There is open land to wander and to explore, and the freedom to search and to find. And there is Christ, in the center, waiting for you to come fill yourself up with him. He wants us to look for ourselves, to realize that, without a doubt, he has us covered.

He doesn't want us to be part of his kingdom because we were taught to. He doesn't want us to be part of his kingdom because that is what we grew up believing, and "2000 years of tradition can't be wrong" (that's another story...).

He wants us to be part of his kingdom because we want to be, because we have found life abundant in Him, and he is our life, our namesake, even.

Do me a favor. Give him a chance. Don't follow a set of rules that were set 2,000 years ago because that is what you grew up to believe. Live with his input in your life. Find his involuntary attraction, and go with it.

You truly haven't lived until you've given the Creator a chance to lead you. And he will bring you places you never knew you could go.

Aaron Jay