Reaching for something higher

I just watched Invictus, the story of Nelson Mandela and the South African rugby team winning the world cup of rugby. It is amazing how a man with aspirations of doing something great can inspire others to truly do something beyond themselves. I have seen the opposite by a coach blinded by ambition for his family that kept him from enabling his team to achieve anything of greatness, he had small goals that entailed pushing forward only his family, and in the end it kept his team from achieving anything of significance, and injuring at least some of those he denied reward to for the sake of his own goals. Great vision for uniting and healing a country torn apart by racial hatred vs small vision for personal and family gain; one led to men rising beyond their abilities and to inspiring great leadership on that South African rugby team. One led to frustrating losses at the end of many seasons while other teams consistently performed well, and to injury emotionally to at least some of those being led.
We must be led by high aspirations, by ideas and goals beyond ourselves, or our lives will diminish to the size of our small and empty thoughts, and we will hurt and not help those around us. Paul the apostle of Jesus thought of himself as the greatest of sinners, but he was being led by Jesus to pursue great things, the bringing of the message of forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life to people who had never heard. Paul's greatness was not achieved because of personal ambition for small minded ideas, but because Jesus gave him a vision to do something truly great, and then empowered him to do so. And Paul wrote much of the New Testament of the Bible that has helped millions and perhaps billions to find peace with God.
So are you content to sit and reach for no goal, and lead an empty and small life? You were made to do much greater. Go and do it with God's guidance and help.

Religio bullies

In my experience, religio bullies are the most hurtful. They are the Pharisees. They are the Christian know-it -alls. They are the "my way is always right and if you don't get in line you have a bad heart" people. They are the "whitewashed tombs" and "vipers" of Jesus time; they are the Christians with their nose in the air looking down on sinners and people not like them, looking down on or rejecting the people who go against their cultural taboos from smoking, to tattoos, to piercings, to metal music, to anything they have already deemed bad (not because scripture declares it so, but because their tradition, their upbringing, their own tastes declare it so). These people have a hard time separating their traditions from scripture. And it is easy for them to twist scripture to make sure it agrees with their traditions.
The reason this can take a type of bullying is because it is done by people in position of religious and Christian authority which Christians are commanded to submit to. Ouch. And those who use this position to make others conform to their traditions and preferences are, in fact, bullying those they are leading. They are not convincing them, and winning them, to their viewpoint. They threaten them with their position ("how dare you challenge me, I am your (elder, pastor, teacher, principal, ...)) and if they do not submit they penalize them in some way. Now this is difficult because there are legitimate times Christians need to discipline those under them, but these are for CLEAR violations of scripture like sexual immorality, drunkenness, divorce, lying, etc. They are not for areas that are grey. Romans 14 says we are not to pass judgement against others on "disputable matters." We need to make up our own minds, but leave others in God's hands. The problem is that for the religio bullies, there are probably very few disputable matters because in their pride, they think they are correct on all or many issues and so others should follow their perspective.
I think these are the most hurtful because these type of bullies will be held responsible for many people going to hell. It will be blood on their hands because they will have hardened many people to the gospel and to a possibility to knowing Jesus as their Savior. People who are seeking or who are close to seeking God are in a delicate position. They may be very confused about what is right and wrong, about how to know God, about what matters in life. If seekers like this are "out there", most Christians will seem to be more understanding (most real Christians who have a heart that has been touched by grace). But when this type of person in among Christians (at a church, in a "Christian" school), the religio bullies in those places do not know what to do with them. And they can often alienate them and not give them the patience and respect and time to ask hard questions and find answers. I have been around Christians who have done these very things. It is extremely ugly.
We who have found the grace of God MUST stand up to the religio bully. It is what Jesus did in standing up to the Pharisees, for instance, when they were trying to forbid Him from healing on the sabbath. The man with the withered hand got healed because Jesus cared about him, but Jesus was furious with the Pharisees because in the garb of their religious faith they could not have cared less about the man, they cared about their rules. So for those of us in positions of leadership among Christians, we must use our position VERY carefully to lead others in faith, and to find His grace, and we must be careful NOT to use this position to get our way or push our private agenda. There are people we are leading who need grace, and patience, and help to draw near to Christ, and if we do not extend it, Jesus will judge us, and it won't be pretty. Because while we may fail to stand up to ourselves as bullies, and to the religio bullies among us, Jesus will NOT fail to stand up to them and put them in their place.
One of the difficult things in standing up to the religio bully is that it may seem like they are taking the high road with their stand on some issues. Those who are ascetic or who deny certain cultural things might seem more righteous. So it becomes hard to resist them. And those who do can be labelled or viewed as soft or weak. Jesus was considered a friend of sinners, and to the religious crowd, this was a put down. But we must learn to see through the issue to what really matters AND what the scriptures really teach. If the scriptures are not clear on the issue, then we cannot be rigid about requiring that everyone take our position on it. And we need to stand up to those who would try to impose their take on the issue as what is right for everyone. We must allow freedom where it exists. And we must stand up to the bullies that want to impose their non-scriptural based rules on others.