Perhaps I’m just a rebellious jerk, but I don’t like being told what to do, what to think, or what to believe. Details of denominational distinction disgust me. My gut tells me a simple truth, and I find the heaping upon of doctrine irrelevant to my relationship with God.
I seem to have three types of days.
Type one: I wake up well-rested, find the sun shining on my bed, enjoy my breakfast, and feel the calm presence of God as I get ready for my day.
Type two: I wake up tired but ready to sacrifice, largely open to an unknown future.
Type three: I wake up and feel like I got run over by a truck. You know the rest.
It doesn’t matter in any of these situations whether I was baptized as a baby, as a kid, or as an adult. It doesn’t matter if I was baptized at all. It doesn’t matter if I’ve taken communion recently. It doesn’t matter if I’ve been a good boy and gone to Sunday school. It doesn’t matter if I think we’ll have free will in heaven.
All that matters is that I drag my spirit with all its baggage into the presence of God and lay it before him without holding back. This means I bring my nastiness along with my goodness. This means I bring the grudge I’m holding and the fears I have about the future. It means I bring my endless worrying about my car’s front suspension and my rage at getting a parking ticket.
Laying these before God without holding back means that I release them to him. I no longer cling to the grudge and my self-righteousness; I no longer cling to the belief that I can control my future if I am smart enough and responsible enough; I no longer cling to the belief that my careful driving habits can make my car last for ten years.
Also, it means I have to stop fantasizing about ramming that damn parking services truck.
Your headline – “The uselessness of doctrine” had me wondering, but after reading, I found what I always find when people are critical of doctrine – it isn’t ALL doctrine, just SOME that people think doesn’t matter. …which I tend to agree with.
Thanks Korey. After hastily writing that post, I was thinking… there must be doctrines on which my relationship with God is founded. I may have made my sweeping generalizations a bit too sweeping.
Easy to do, my friend. I’ve certainly been there myself.
I’ve always really appreciated some of the things A.W. Tozer had to say about our theology (understanding of God):
http://newdemonstration.com/quotes/aw-tozer/what-do-you-think-about-god