Brimstone: The Art And Act Of Holy NonjudgmentSample

Love

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength” is Jesus way of saying, “Hey, you get to live any way you want toward me. You get to do everything—marriage, money, morality, life—as you believe you should. You get to parent your kids the way you want, you get to choose what you want to eat and drink, how you want to spend your Sabbath, what you’ll do with extra money, whatever. It doesn’t matter what other people decide to do with all these issues, no other person’s choices, orientations, philosophies, or idiosyncrasies will determine what’s right or wrong for you. Even if everyone defiles the sanctity or marriage and the sanctity of life around you, you don’t have to. You can still serve God. It’s like Joshua said, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ If the government someday chooses to legalize concubines and polygamy, you still get to choose one spouse. If they legalize all kinds of crazy drugs, you don’t have to smoke, snort, inject, or topically apply them.“

So relax, chill out, and be happy that you don’t have to freak out or fight against every social abnormality.

“And …

“You have to love the jokers next to you, which means you cannot force the way you live unto me (vertically) onto anyone else (horizontally). You have to love the guy married to three women. You have to love the twenty-year-old who has three kids out of wedlock. You have to love the Islamic man whose call to prayer siren wakes you up every morning at four a.m. You have to love the five fraternity boys who create thick fogbanks of pot smoke that waft into your kitchen window and put your children down for an early nap. They don’t live like you, they don’t like what you like, they don’t worship me as you do, but I want you to love them. And yes, that means you shouldn’t hassle the topless pole dancers.”