Breaking the Rules Friday, January 19, 2007
Normally this would kill me. Here we are, at the bowling alley, and my daughter is breaking the rules. I’m very rules driven. I think of that as a core part of my makeup. So why wasn’t I freaking out about this? Am I relaxing in my old age? I think my family would probably say no. Was it because it made for an interesting picture? Maybe. I think it might be because, while she was technically breaking the “law”, Kelly was keeping to the spirit of the law. She only took the cover off her drink to take a sip, then put the cover right back on. The spirit of the law, the reason for it, was to keep the bowling area clean from spilled food. She was making sure she wouldn’t spill her food.
This is an obvious parallel to The Bible. God initially created a lot of rules/laws for people to show them how he wanted them to act. Jesus came along and told us that we needed to keep the spirit of the law, not get caught up in the law itself (by that time, the religious leaders had expanded the whole system of laws so that it was practically impossible to obey them all). So it’s not about keeping to the letter of the law, it’s about realizing its purpose and keeping to that purpose. I love Jesus’ commandment to love God and love each other as we love ourselves. That makes everything else fall into place. No need for laws, because bringing Jesus into our lives writes God’s laws upon our heart.
In Kelly’s case, she realized the purpose of the sign was for her to keep from spilling her drink and she made sure that didn’t happen. I really think that’s why I didn’t get so uptight. Or maybe I am beginning to relax as I’m getting older. Now wouldn’t that be something?