Some “Cliff’s notes” from a book I’m currently reading:

We need to speak in ways that free our listeners from a secular social imaginary, where the words “authority” and “obedience” suggest a way of living that is either outmoded or oppressive. What we need to communicate is that in following Jesus, disciples leave their bondage to the flesh, and enter into a freedom of the spirit in which obedience leads not to frustration, but flourishing.

Disciples are called to follow neither a philosophy, nor a moral code, nor justice, nor inclusiveness, nor even orthodoxy, but the person of Jesus Christ: God’s word made flesh and the exemplar of what it is to be truly human.

Many of us in the church are following stories that enslave rather than free. We have turned to follow popular wisdom and political correctness. We have bowed the knee to Oprah or Chopra (or both). We are sleepwalking our way through life, never stopping to test the spirit behind the stories we’re following to see whether they are from God. We need to be jolted awake by the Spirit that created the universe; the Spirit that awakens us to live in the new reality in Christ, to the story of what God has done, is doing, and will do in Jesus Christ. And then we must get up and walk in that reality.