What is necessary and what is not?
Drawing a snake with legs
In the state of Chu, a man who had held a sacrifice gave the goblet of sacrificial wine to his stewards.
"This is not enough for us all, "said the stewards, "but more than enough for one. Let's draw snakes on the ground and the one who finishes first can have the wine."
The man who finished first picked up the goblet, but holding it in his left hand went on drawing with his right.
"I am adding some legs," he said.
Before he finished the legs, though, another steward completed his drawing and took the goblet from him.
"A snake has no legs," said this last. "Why should you add legs?"
So, he drained the wine instead. And the one who had drawn the legs had nothing to drink.
[Warring States Anecdotes]
This story always makes me smile. The title has become a stock idiom in Chinese, - perhaps a cultural equivalent would be "gilding the lily".
How often do we miss the prize because we over-complicate things unnecessarily?
The Christian Church today has come a long way from the simplicity of the church described in Acts where:
"they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."
Acts 2:42 [NIV]
Belonging to a church variously requires attendance at meetings, a particular dress code, particular attitudes like teetotalism and all sorts of other cultural impositions.
We need to take a long hard look at what Jesus requires of us, and jettison all the extra baggage we are carrying that is superfluous and distracting.
Ask God to remind you, or reveal to you, the true nature of the gospel and where you should be concentrating your efforts.
Mairi Mowbray
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