Recovering Legalist

I was visiting Willow Creek Community Church a month ago in the middle of a transition in my life. I was really looking forward to hearing from Pastor Bill Hybels when Steven Curtis Chapman was brought out on stage to do a morning of worship and share some of his life stories. Now if you're anything like me, you would have been immediately disappointed and wondered how a morning of worship with an outdated, old school, corny Christian songwriter would impact your life but I was so very wrong!

First off, you never know where someone is going until you know where they've been. You never really know what someone is going through or how their life experiences have changed them. We are so quick to judge based on what we see with our own eyes without really trying to understand how or why people react the way they do. I had heard of some of the horrible stories that happened to the Chapman family but when you really get to hear from someone why they wrote a certain song or how they hold onto God even in the darkest moments of their life you find a new perspective and appreciation for them. This particular Sunday morning rocked me in an unexpected way.

Steven Curtis Chapman would profess himself as a recovering legalist. He grew up in the Church and knew all the right things to do and say. He found himself judging others and trying to stay in line with the traditions of the Bible, all wrapped around the idea of doing enough good and 'earning' your salvation. The sad reality is that this sounds like many of the "Christians" who attend churches today. We compare ourselves constantly and have a cheap understanding of grace. We think that if we do enough good, 'bad' things won't happen to us and we'll live in our comfortable, middle-class homes, doing just enough 'church' to get by without conviction. We really ignore all the bases of love and rarely inconvenience ourselves to serve. Unfortunately we miss several opportunities to share the love of Christ daily.

Maybe you're a recovering legalist and you don't understand the Gospel fully, or you don't want to give some things up in your life that you deem as necessary, or you feel too judged or not 'good enough'. Whatever your excuse may be, God wants to communicate two things with you: that He loves you right where you are, and are you willing to trust Him?