Mindful Adventure – 1 June 2010

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 [NIV]

I think there is something in us that likes rules.  When we have a rule, we don’t have to think too much, we feel safe.  There isn’t the unknown adventure of life in the Spirit.  Most of us are brought up to think that obeying rules is a good thing, but I’m not sure it is unless there is an engaging of our brain.

Most of the laws of our country are just, but what about the unwritten norms of society? Just as the Pharisees set out religious rules that would have been difficult to disobey, it is not easy to be counter cultural, and behave differently to those around us.

Back in March, a French TV show invited contestants to give a man increasingly large electric shocks until he apparently died.  The “Game of Death” recruited ordinary people who had no idea they were being set up.  The man, who was apparently being zapped each time he got a quiz question wrong, was really an actor.  The show's hostess urged contestants to turn up the voltage until the man screamed in pain.  Eventually the "victim" appeared to drop dead.  81 percent of the participants obeyed. "They are not equipped to disobey," said the programme-maker, Christophe Nick.

What would you have done?  We all like to think we would have been with the 19 percent who disobeyed, but would we?

It reminds me how I have to worship God with my mind, staying as alert as I can to what is going on around me, bringing situations to Him in prayer, not being being conformed to the pattern of this world, but being transformed by the renewing of my mind and if necessary disobeying the rules that the world sets before me.  This is surely part of the adventure.