Believe it or not, I’ve always felt like religion was easy.  To be religious can mean, at it’s most simple just a collection of things that we should and shouldn’t do.  Religion, at it’s most simple, is a check list.

That’s what a lot of folks think about faith. And honestly, that’s what a lot of believers think about faith.  If I just do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that, than it’s all taken care of.

Today, in Psalm 50, the Psalmist says this

13 Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls, *
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving *
and make good your vows to the Most High.
15 Call upon me in the day of trouble; *
I will deliver you, and you shall honor me.”

We are reminded that faith is not, in the end, about what we do, or don’t do.

Now, there are things we are supposed to do and not do. But, it doesn’t start with that.

It starts with that heart for God.  It starts with that relationship.  It starts with a desire to know and be known, to love and be loved.

It’s not about a check list.  It’s not about making God love us.  It’s not about doing what Christians are “supposed” to do.

It’s about understanding that we are loved more than we’ll ever know. That an awesome, holy, and righteous God simply loves us.

And it’s about knowing that we are supposed to love God, and love each other in that same way.

So, if there is a check list, it’s not “religion.”  It’s love.  Love God. Love each other. That’s it, that’s the list.