Free with My Opinions

In my last post I dove into the imprisonment of my opinions. As I said, I’ve not met many people who don’t enforce their opinions like laws. We defend them, evangelize for them, and enact punitive judgments on anyone who has dissenting views. Opinion is just playing God, where we have no business or control. Today I want to show how the stage is set to entreat our opinions.

Opinions and a Crazy World

With all the reality shows and political hijinks out there, many of us are being tempted to daily become judge and jury of our fellow man. Okay, let’s be honest, it isn’t much of a stretch to do. But with ready access to view up close and personal all of man’s idiosyncrasies, it’s an open door for me to decide what should be and what is without a single breath from God. It is so dangerous to stand in this position of opinions. It’s playing God and sets us up for a huge fall.

Another consequence of having ready access to man’s many foibles is that we start to moving through life reacting rather than listening. Again, not a huge stretch. We crossed that bridge and set up shop way back in the Garden. We all chose to decide rather than rely. And let’s face it, any aspect of our lives which exclude rather than include God is death.

A Stage is Set for My Opinions

Having free access to others actions, thoughts, and feelings makes a perfect stage ripe for my judgments. It is so easy to criticize people’s views, especially when they are completely counter to our own. And things like Facebook live videos just gives me a pair of high-powered binoculars to see more of what I can judge. And I seem to judge them with ease. It is as easy as thinking critical thoughts or harboring feelings of derision. “How stupid! I can’t believe they think that way! Idiots!” And while this is deadly for my own soul, it is not the area of my opinions’ greatest offense. My most destructive judgments come much closer to home—in my judgments of God and myself.

Chief Offender of Opinions

I have been a chief offender in this. I speak a lot about who Christ is in me, but there is another aspect to this, who I am in Christ. Yes, the me created and formed by the Master Creator. My unique expression is as individual as my DNA. While Christ’s Life is my life, His Life still emanates from me. To cultivate opinions outside of God’s mind is to live willful and obstinate, but as I live listening, I can experience His Life in the me He created.

In my next post I want to share with you a picture of how our lives can be not I but Christ while still being me. I am so excited about this and I think it is an amazing picture of this reality. I have waited a while for this, for a simple example from the Word.