Fire Dances

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31 ESV). In many tribal cultures, there are dances and rituals that members perform to please the gods they worship. Ceremonies for rain, cleansing rituals, sacrifices, and even fire dances keep their schedules full making sure their gods are happy and not mad. It is as easy to make our walk with God complicated. We can as easily make the bible so complicated that it is hard to tell when the writing is right side up. The "fire dances" of the bible keep us so caught up we can barely face God daily, not sure if we are in good standing or not. While there is a few basic principles set forth for us to follow in the bible, they are there to ensure that we live a life that restores us to God's loving arms. They are not there to keep us performing a "fire dance" afraid at any moment that God's judgment will find us lacking in a performance or fear of failure. God has already judged the world including us; other than death, we are worthy of nothing else. Nevertheless, God has restored us to Him through His son Jesus. Christ's death on the cross for us is the only performance we will ever need for God's love. God does not want our performance, neither does God want ceremonies designed to get His approval of us. God wants us to just believe that He has our lives under His control and to live out the basics. God calls us to live out the basics and then believe that He will carry out the details of our lives. The simple basics are to believe in God with all of our hearts, soul, and strength and to show everyone we meet His love. Part of maturing as a Christian is to enjoy the freedom that God has everything in His control. What may have looked like mistakes in the past are springboards to put you where He wants you to be today. It is impossible for anything to go wrong and nothing can be out of control when they are God's plans. We need to stop fretting about the past and areas where we have failed. There are no complicated "fire dances" that we need to perform and no intricate ceremony to complete. God's plan for us is simple and the path that we are to follow is basic. We need to believe that God is everything to us with finality. Second, we need to love Him with all we have and love others as much as we love ourselves. Let’s get back to the real basics of life!