Field Notes From a Religion-Less Christian

March 10, 2022

Life is Not Some Deal to Be Struck, Nor Does it Last Forever

“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and make good your vow to the most High” (Psalm 50)

Here in Psalm 50 God rejects both the religious (“I will take no bull-calf from your stalls…”) and the irreligious (“since you refuse discipline and toss my words behind your back”) but looks only for a word of appreciation (two times here: “offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving”), though watch this carefully: needs it not (“if I were hungry I would not tell you, for the whole world is mine and all that is in it”). 

What is God daily doing to us? Not demanding a deal, some righteousness from us in order to reap righteousness from God. Rather this: providing a magnificent home wherein we live out our days (“the Lord, the God of gods, has spoken; he has called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting”). This encouragement, not caution, to “offer thanksgiving” means to open us up to what is most real and true. Life is a gift to be lived out until it is exhausted, not a deal to be struck so as to claim victory. It is an invitation to full expression, not an admonition to proper obeisance.