God Without Religion_ Can It Really Be This Simple_ - Andrew Farley [2]
Remembering our previous small talk, I said, “Homeless? I thought you said you live at 211 West Young Street, Apartment B.”
Feeling caught in his lie, he said, “Oh yeah, well, I’m cold. You got any gloves?”
I looked around the front hall. A pair of my wife’s furry pink gloves was right there. My wife would’ve preferred that I continue the search, but I handed him the lovely gloves and said, “Here you go. Now, the best thing to do is just leave.”
“Okay,” he said, “but can I jump your fence?”
“Jump our fence? No, just walk around, man,” I said.
“C’mon, Drew Dog, I always jump the fence when I go through your yard!” he said.
His reply wasn’t exactly comforting. After that night, we began looking for ways to move! “Look, man, you gotta get out of here. The police are on their way again,” I said.
He seemed surprised. But he took my word for it and headed off down the street. When the police pulled up, I pointed in his direction, and they set off in pursuit.
That was the last we saw of him for a while. But then one beautiful fall afternoon the following year . . .
Knock. Knock.
I opened the door and was greeted with, “Drew Dog! How you doin’, Drew Dog? Listen, you got any work for me? Maybe I could rake your leaves again?”
“Just a minute,” I said. “I’ve got something in the kitchen I need to take care of.”
Religious Robbery
After the burglary, we felt pretty insecure. Every night we closed the curtains up tight, and every noise made us jump. Before long, we purchased an expensive alarm system, installing motion sensors on our windows and throughout the house. The burglars had taken $13,000 in belongings, but our sense of security was the most valuable thing they stole.
In much the same way, we can fall victim to spiritual burglary. Religion is a thief that’s delighted to clean us out. Religion plots to rob us of our spiritual possessions and our sense of security. Oh, and religion is happy to drop by our doorstep later to offer it all back.
At a price.
So how can we keep our confident rest in Jesus from being stolen and held for ransom? By abandoning any form of religion.
Is it safe to just abandon religion? As we’ll see, it’s not only safe; it’s God’s passionate desire for us. But if we’re to escape the clutches of religion, we need to see religion for what it truly is. And we need to be certain there’s another way.
As I shared the true story of our experience with burglary and extortion, you probably wondered, “Why did he keep opening the door?”
Good question.
In hindsight, I realize I shouldn’t have. It would’ve been safer to ignore the burglar and his offer. I guess I thought there might be some way to get our stuff back. Similarly, the trouble with religion is that it appeals to our human appetites. When we’ve lost a sense of belonging in God’s kingdom or the feeling of closeness to the King, we may look to religion for answers. It’s difficult to simply ignore religion, shutting the door on its offers. And we can’t afford to ignore religion unless we’re certain we already have everything we need to make life work, apart from religion.
This book is an invitation to consider the idea that we Christians need no religion of any sort. That instead we already have everything we need to experience an intimate relationship with Jesus. Maybe our only real trouble is that we just don’t know what we have.
1
I wrote my first book, The Naked Gospel, on a Sony laptop. It began crashing pretty often during the last couple of months of finishing the book. So after I finished the book, I decided I’d shop for a new laptop.
Now I’m typing away on my new Apple MacBook. Yeah, I switched teams. But for you die-hard PC fans, let me explain what happened to me.
I had done my research ahead of time. I was well aware that Consumer Reports rated MacBooks as the most reliable. I also knew that Apple had top-rated customer