feeding the meter....

^{Today I finished a book called “The Ramsay Scallop”. It’s about a catholic girl [Eleanor] and her betrothed [Thomas] being sent on a religious pilgrimage to the shrine of St James. Now in case you’re not familiar with the term “religious pilgrimage” what it was in this book, was a chance for two people to make a journey to this shrine to repent for their town (earning their salvation). So basically…that would be like you walking for three months to this place to pray for forgiveness for you and every single person in your town, all the while fighting disease and hunger and living in complete poverty, etcetera.}

^{So, this book got me thinking……painful, I know…but thinking none the less. Do I try to earn my salvation? Do I try to be a good person because I think it scores me brownie points with God? Or do I do it simply because the Bible says to and because I love Jesus? Do I drop a few bills into the Salvation Army bucket in Wal-Mart because I genuinely care about suffering people, or because it makes me look like a good person? Am I on multiple worship teams because I love praising God and leading people to Him, or because I just like to play music?}

^{These are really hard questions to ask myself, but they’re even harder to answer. Honestly sometimes I just do the right thing because I’m afraid of the consequences if I don’t do it. Because, if I do this…or if I do that, maybe God will love me more. If I donate my time to this cause, or something……maybe that will make up for me losing my patience with my brother.}   

^{I guess it’s kind of like this…}

^{I have a dog. The dog has to eat. Do I feed the dog because I love her? Or because I feel an obligation to keep her alive and I want her to like me?}

^{The obvious answer is because I love her. I take care of her because she’s my baby (she’s curled up on my lap sleeping as I write this).}

^{So……do I serve God because I love Him and His people? Or because I need to “park my car in His parking place (aka heaven) and so I keep feeding the meter…”?}

^{In the past…I think I’ve been feeding the meter so I can park in the God parking lot (lame analogy I know…), but after reading this book and seeing how people were trying to earn their place in God’s kingdom, and how silly it is……well, it makes me want to be different. I guess it’s a “mask” (refer to my masquerade post) that I’ve been wearing and it’s high time I take it off. So here goes…}