Rules

So tonight I'm doing the Salvation Army thing, serving out some coffee and chatting with people and this theme of rules came up in two of my conversations and I feel like there's something about that. I'll start typing and we'll see what we figure out.

The conversation was with a man I talked to last week. He's a Christian, very sensible and well spoken. He started a conversation by asking me about the rules of fasting for Lent. If you should eat meat on Sundays and what not. I started to share everything I know about ways of practicing Lent; the differences between Catholic and liturgical Protestant ways of doing things. He said something to the effect of "I just want to know the rules. I think it's good to follow them." Then I talked about how there's not really rules, even in the Church there are different ways of practicing Lent. And we can't overlook the words of the prophet Isaiah: (do yourself a favor and read the whole chapter)

Isaiah 58

"5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

So yeah, fasting isn't a show. It isn't an end in itself. It's a means to an end. The "rule" of fasting, as my friend put it, is only a way to come to a deeper understanding of our need for God. However, the rules that we choose to follow or not follow for the season of Lent tell something about who we are.

Okay, so then I run into another friend who I hadn't seen in a year. I barely remembered his story. He remembered me though. And he started telling me about his life. He had gotten drunk the other night and woke up to find himself detained by the police. He's lost all his stuff, and is pretty fed up with life on the streets right now. We started talking about his options, and I mentioned the SD Rescue Mission as a possible way out. "No I couldn't do that. I couldn't handle all the curfews and stuff. All the rules." I thought about that a bit and we talked about it some more. I pointed out that in my life, there were choices that I make and as a result there are certain rules and obligations I have to follow. For example to stay in the nursing program I have to maintain a certain GPA, to stay in my house I have to pay rent. However, he revealed to me that when you live on the street, you have a new reality. There are no rules; the only rule is survive. As long as you don't mess with people's turf, you pretty much come and go as you please. It's hard to make that transition back to understanding the value of rules for survival and life in society outside the streets.

So I'm thinking about rules; about how our rules dictate our reality. Or vice versa. There are rules, obligations, orders, that keep us committed to what we do. Our rules and commitments are means for upward mobility and growth, but they also define our growth; they identify those who are able and those who are unable. In some ways that is a good thing. I do not want to visit a doctor who has not followed the rules in attaining her position as a doctor. The classes she passed, the clinical work she did identify her as a professional, more worthy to assess and aid my health than the person who bags my groceries (more often than not). Granted however, it is not the following the rules that makes someone a good doctor, just a licenced one.

In the same way, my friend who doubts his ability to follow the Rescue Mission's rules has his identity as one who is unable to cope with the realities of living in what we call functional society. Those rules separate him from me.

So I'm not saying rules are bad, I am just saying that we have to be aware of the rules we follow. We have to be aware of how the rules that we follow define who we are and who we are not. We have to love people despite what rules they follow.

And ironically these two conversations come full circle to reveal the real rule. There are rules like fasting, tithing, praying, but the rule that sums up all other rules is to LOVE. Especially remember to love those who do not and/or cannot follow the rules.

^"Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard."