What does a picture frame have to do with the Christian life?
It depends how you look at it.
The idea/words popped out of my mouth a number of years ago while talking with a childhood friend.
We had grown up in each other’s library books while in elementary school, but the last time I’d seen her was at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies.
That was it until Facebook entered our lives.
We reconnected, discovered we now lived 20 miles apart in Northern California, and made arrangements for coffee.
We picked up exactly where we had left off–though, obviously with more mature themes and stories–and laughed and caught up for a couple hours.
Wonderful.
But my brilliant, well-read, witty journalist friend was perplexed by something in my history.
“Christianity, Michelle? Why?”
I let the Holy Spirit answer the question, as in keeping with Jesus’ wisdom in Luke 12:11:
“Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say.”
I laughed and explained very simply:
“I see Christianity as a freeing way to live. The Bible provides the frame in which I live my life. I’m free to do anything I like as long as I stay within those basic parameters.”
She shook her head, probed my answer a little more like a good reporter and then we moved onto another topic.
I loved seeing her then and I love interacting with her today.
Thanks, Facebook.
Why live your life in a frame?
She didn’t ask, but that’s really the root of her question.
I like having a frame.
Long ago, I read about a new elementary school that didn’t want their students to feel oppressed or limited.
The school designers thought fences were a problem so they didn’t build any. The playground opened to wide fields.
A curious thing happened, though, at recess.
The children didn’t play all over that wide-open space. They huddled or stuck close to the buildings with their balls and games.
When asked, several explained they didn’t feel safe because they didn’t know where the playground ended and the fields began.
In other words, they needed a boundary, a frame, so they would know where they were safe and where they were not.
When the chagrinned administrators erected a fence, the children fanned out and played all over the playground–all the way up to the fence.
Knowing where the line was gave them the freedom not to worry about it.
How do you live in a frame?
The Bible provides my frame. I believe that God gave me the gifts, talents and abilities He desired for me to use and enjoy.
I think God enjoys watching how I use my wonderful gifts (thank you, God!) in creative ways–whether cooking, cleaning, writing, loving, playing, working, reading.
The Bible tells me where the limits are–what I can and cannot do and remain under God’s benevolent care.
The Bible provides lots of examples of people turning their backs on God’s frame to go their own way.
They don’t care if they offend the God who created them in a specific time and place, with or without gifts, for His purposes.
They want to do what is right in their own eyes, no matter what God thinks.
That’s called sin.
Sin, ultimately, results in eternity separated from God.
I don’t want to live one day separated from the Creator of the Universe, the Jesus who sacrificed his life so I do not have to spend eternity apart from God.
I want to live in fellowship with the amazing Holy Spirit who inspires and rejoices and points me back, time and again, to the God who loved and created me.
If that means living within a framework, terrific!
That frame allows me to live my life wide and tall–to paint the picture God has put into my soul all the way to the ends.
And when the paint in my life overflows the frame or slops outside the boundary, I always can see Him beckoning me back to where it’s safe.
I apologize and he helps me back in.
I love the frame God placed around my fun, joyous, wide and tall life.
Thanks be to God.
Tweetables
What does living in God’s frame look like? Click to Tweet
Framed or freed by the Bible? Click to Tweet
The Bible as a frame for God’s creativity in you. Click to Tweet
This scene from the BBC version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader always amuses me. Note that the children are happier once they’re inside the frame and back in Narnia!
Excellent way of showing that we need boundaries, Michelle.
If you were to discuss that with your friend, would she understand? Or just think that’s in keeping with her idea that “religion”–specifically Christianity–is just a bunch of rules/prohibitions? I hope you get to talk with her some more about your relationship with Jesus.