I'm Quitting Morality . . .

That's right, I am quitting morality! Truth is, I have been trying to quit for about 10 years now.

Sometime around my graduation from college I began to realize that almost all of my life choices had been self-serving. There are many people that graduate from college and begin to realize this (and there are many that never learn this lesson), but most of them are repenting from their partying, drinking, casual sex, and living for the moment. I, on the other hand, made it through college without a drink or drunkenness (which is easy because I think beer is nasty!) and without falling into the trap of sex before marriage. My decisions were based on a list of rules for right living. I knew that if I broke these rules that I would just be creating trouble for myself. My morality was primarily self-serving.

During the season immediately following graduation I decided to make a change. I decided I would quit morality. This didn't mean that I began consuming massive amounts of beer in order to get drunk, nor did it mean that I began racking up numbers of sexual encounters. What it did mean is that I traded the selfish motivation of my morality for a selfless motivation. I quit morality in favor of worship.

For the past 10 years I have been trying to live the everyday life and make the everyday decisions motivated by the opportunity to bring glory to God. I have learned that I don't have to earn God's favor or his forgiveness, that has been freely given. And, because of that, I have been freed to make my life decisions motivated by His glory and not my own. Every decision is an opportunity to bring glory to God or to rob him of his glory in favor of my own. At times this is a heavy weight to carry, but the joy I find in bringing him glory as I follow his way of life is more satisfying than anything else!