To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. - e. e. cummings

I read that out of a little book called Posers, Fakers & Wannabes, by Brennan manning & Jim Hancock.

In the first little chapter was a story about Brennan as a monk in his earlier years. He described an episode during a catholic ritual where at the outloud reading of Psalms 51 by a superior, they would enter their cells and whip themselves with coiled telephone wire to rid themselves of their lust.

He shares how he scourged himself in religious fervency and zeal leaving blood blisters on his back and buttocks. He recalls hearing a fellow penitent lashing himself rigorously in the cell next to him. The man was so zealous Brennan was sure the man was going to wound himself severely, so he peeked in the man's cell.

To Brennans horror, bewilderment and dismay, there the man was sitting on his bed with a "bemused smile and a cigarette in his left hand. It was the wall he was whacking, not his own body, thwack, thwack, thwack..."

Oh, how I laughed! Oh how I cried...

Strange reaction, I thought to myself about myself, as I sat there on my couch feeling all to guilty for loving such a display of religious defiance.

The apostle Paul said there are those who teach a version of Christianity that creates a mindset that revolves around "do not handle, do not taste, do not touch" type of discipleship. It lifts up those who can live out "harsh treatment of the body." They are the "extremely zealous" they make you go "wow they are committed." He says they often have a lot of "regulations...human commands and teachings" and that on the outside and to the ear not attuned to Jesus life, they have "the appearance of wisdom."

But you know what? You can whip your butt until you bleed with the biggest, baddest, ugliest religious cat of nine tails you can find in your current hyper spiritual toolbox and still not "restrain sensual indulgence."

Lust doesn't extinguish that way...it actually grows.

Sorry to throw water on your spiritual superman fever that is burning you up but the heart can't be changed by such ways.

You can chain a wild dog to the porch all you want but soon as that little noose is loose...he's gone!

Paul said such thinking that permeates so much of Christian example, conversation and teaching is really "the basic principles of this world." It's not wisdom from above but from below. It's a way of living that Paul says we have to realize that we died too. That's not our path anymore. In fact Paul goes so far as to say...Why do you submit to it's rules?"

Why do we?
Why do you?
Why do I?

Paul call some of their hyper false spirituality tactics "self imposed worship."

How much of what we call "worship of God" is self imposed stuff versus God imposed? How much of our daily Christ life is merely the fruit of human thinking, man made rules and traditions that have arose out of religious minds of the earth not spiritual minds from Jesus?

How much of this dog like butt sniffing that goes on in religious circles is of God?
People sniffing around making sure everyone is in line, being good and not an impostor. Paul called such people "The dogs" in Philippians 3:2. There is a whole lot of uptight Pharisees checking our shorts to see if we are circumcised or not. It's chronic...spoken or unspoken it's there. I know because I have been one for a long time and I am tired of living that way.

I am tired of the pressure to judge, fix, correct, straighten out, spank, corral, frighten, pressure, guilt, condemn, and look down on others. I know nobody says they do that but I have and I see it all the time.

I'm weary of feeling like I have to save the world and that for others to stay saved depends on me and my ability to be good enough. This constant feeling that everyone is teetering on the edge of God rejection and that one slip up from you and their eternal soul's blood is on your hands is too much. My God! That's a massive weight to bear...who can handle such pressure? I don't want to impose such a ball and chain on believers.