Free to Live: The Utter Relief of Holiness Read Online Free PDF

holiness?
    It changes everything when you do.
    1 Now, for a far fuller encounter with Jesus, you’ll want to read Beautiful Outlaw . There I have an entire book to unveil what we have only a chapter for here. This is the glance from the sycamore; that is having Jesus over to spend a few weeks at your house.

Chapter Three

Set Free to Live
    I received this note from a friend last week:
    I think it began with traffic, my response to traffic. The way people drive, how stupid they can be. I noticed I was having a pretty strong reaction to it. You are such a *@#%! idiot . It felt good, my reaction felt good; it felt justified. I could let some steam off. But then I began to notice a similar pattern at work. Somebody would send around one of those lame corporate emails, and it would be filled with such stupid decisions and backward ideas it would just fry me; I wanted to fire back. Sometimes I did. More often than not I’d just write the email and then delete it. Something was really pissed off inside of me. Then I saw it in my friendships, especially when people would let me down. I wanted to point out what they were doing; it felt the same as on the freeway. I wanted to fry them. I began to see that resentment was a pretty deep part of my experience in the world. When I’d hear of bad news that had struck someone, I wouldn’t feel compassion; I’d feel like, Maybe now you’ll get your act together . It was a horrible feeling. My God—am I such a bad person? I felt torn inside, like part of me was just hurt and another part of me was resentful. Why am I such an angry person? Why am I so resentful? It’s tearing me apart.
    This is a horrible place to find yourself in. Substitute lust or envy, fear or resignation, compulsion of any kind, and you’ll find yourself saying words like these, I have no doubt.
    My friend isn’t crying out for vengeance, or for dominance. He’s crying out for goodness . Our souls will never be right without it. That is why goodness is the healing of our humanity. It really is.
    Another friend I’ll call Susan used to be quite an accomplished liar. All through her youth, but certainly in her teenage years, she was a compulsive liar. And the terrible thing is, she was very, very good at it. She has something close to a photographic memory—essential for a liar if she is never to be found out. She would lie to her parents about where she’d been; lie to her teachers as to why she’d missed class; lie to boys in order to gain their favor; lie to impress her friends. As I write these words, I am on the one hand deeply embarrassed for my friend, and on the other hand, it feels like I am describing someone else. It has been quite a few years now since Jesus Christ got hold of Susan’s life, and the thought of telling even the most “innocent white lie” is now repulsive to her. No, that’s not quite it; I think I could honestly say she simply isn’t even capable of it. She hates falsehood in any form. I love that about her. The professional liar can’t help but tell the truth these days.
    My friend “Benny” was a drug dealer in his twenties. Hash, marijuana, cocaine, acid, amphetamines, barbiturates—you name it, he brokered it all. And made a killing. The guy was rolling in cash. Utterly bereft of conscience, indifferent to the devastation he was causing, Benny became rich by encouraging chemical dependencies in hundreds of people—addictions that destroyed many of their lives. “Most of my friends are dead,” Benny confessed one day. “The others are in mental wards. They overdosed.” Thirty years ago Jesus Christ took hold of Benny’s life in a fairly dramatic way, and now the pusher can’t bear to take an aspirin. He’s a kind, compassionate man who would do anything to see his friends restored. The money, the drugs, and the lifestyle that went with it all are simply gone. Vanished. “I don’t even remember that person anymore,” Benny says, grateful and