PATTERNS

"Hi, my name is Brian and I'm a pattern alignment addict."

Today I finished some food and as I went to put the plate into the dishwater I noticed that the pattern was upside down and I put it in anyway. Yes, that's right folks, FREE in Christ Jesus to put dishes in the dishwasher with the pattern UPSIDE DOWN! 

I told my precious bride what I'd just done, "Honey I'm free in Christ!, I just put a plate in with the pattern upside down!"  

"Me too", she said calmly, "I did it the other day cause I knew it didn't matter anymore."

OK, so it was funny and seems like a small thing really but in my depths of sinfulness I was the GCF (Great Control Freak). Since I had no control over my own self I was bound to control something... anything! So my own dear family found themselves involved in my bondage. The restrictive behaviors were ludicrous going as far as how dishes were set in the dishwasher based on the pattern. Crazy you say? Yep, crazy. But the man outside of Christ is just that: Crazy.

You see we were meant for service, but we want to be in charge. And it starts early! Ever heard a two year old snatch at something crying loudly, "Me do it!" We all want control. Yet we will all serve someone and it is the one we serve that is our master. Anyone who serves self is actually in bondage to the flesh, to the world and to the powers of darkness. The man who serves self has been tricked into thinking he is free, that he is in control.

When we look at the “meth-head” the drunk or the man addicted to porn or immoral behavior we absolutely know that they are out of control but we often over look ourselves. If you are not serving Christ, if He is not your Savior, then you are just as much a slave as the others. Your slavery is just more fashionable or acceptable. But it may not have always been so. 

Consider that in our society, a few years ago,  it was considered unacceptable for two men or women to be involved with each other in the same way that married couples are; yet today... well just look around. Look at the TV shows. Look at your news paper, the movies, the schools. Today the slavery of homosexuality has becoming fashionable. Yet they think they're free and in control.

In order to fool myself into thinking I was free and in control I made up my own rules. (You know: "Me do it!") My sin required me being Lord over someone, something, anything; demanding that things be done a certain way. Yet in the middle of this control I had no control over myself. I was in bondage to the flesh and had no more freedom than the meth-head, the drunk or anyone else on the list.

Now I laugh at the absurdity of having to have the dish’s pattern all alike and yet that was a rule at my house. This was important to me because it was something I could control.

But God. Then God moved in my heart and changed me. He made me into a new creation (II Cor. 5.17). I did not take a 12 step program. Been there, done that. I took the One Step Program offered by God. The “IF any man be in Christ”  program. It worked for me and it will work for you too! Believe me the dishes being stacked alike was the VERY least of my problems. My issues went back years and were a very present struggle each day. But God moved in my heart and by His sovereign grace He touched me and made me a new man. A man whose completeness is in Christ Jesus instead of himself and it has made many, many differences in my life and in my family’s life even down to the dishes!