Three Simple Rules

In October, I'll be heading to Buffalo Mountain Camp and Retreat Center in Jonesborough, TN. I'll be taking my fourth course of five I need to take to earn a graduate certificate in Camping and Retreat Ministries from Drew Theological. It's titled Biblical Foundations of Camping and Retreat Ministries. One of the five books I'm reading in preparation is a small volume titled "Three Simple Rules, a Wesleyan Way of Living". Whether or not you are Wesleyan, this little volume could radically change your life. An Amazon.com reviewer said:

"John Wesley espoused three simple rules: Do No Harm, Do Good, and Stay in Love with God. Though these rules sound amazingly simple - and they are - yet to actually practice them may indeed be the hardest thing you've ever done. This small book shows how difficult the instructions of Jesus (and Wesley) can be in real life, and yet how rewarding they can also be both in this life and in the life to come, if we simply take them to heart."

Do no Harm, Do Good and Stay in Love with God. They are really simple rules. It's authentically living by those rules that is the hard part. But think about how our world would be a different place if everyone followed these three rules. Think about how your world would be changed by even just you implementing these rules in your life.

There is the crux.

Yes, we can change THE world, but we need to start with OUR world. How we relate to others and our environment (do no harm, do good) can make a difference in our lives. By following these rules, we have impact on other lives. Rule three makes it all happen. Stay in Love with God. If we love God and God's creation (each and every thing in it), then we can't help but do no harm and do good. It takes the focus off ourselves, and puts it on others. How can you act that will not harm another? More proactively, how can you act to do good to another? So, rather than asking or looking for the way the situation can help you....the focus is on to do good for others (and other things) and to not harm them.

As the author, Reuben Job, says:

"Holy living will not be discovered, achieved, continued, and sustained without staying in love with God. And while staying in love with God involves prayer worship, study, and the Lord's Supper, it also involves feeding the lambs, tending the sheep, and providing for the needs of others (John 21:15-16).

I think putting this practice in my life will take a lifetime of conscious living and loving. It will take a lifetime of contemplative listening to God for direction and leading. And, it will take a lifetime of Love of God, others and creation. The time to start is now. I hope you will consider joining me in this life-long quest to live by Three Simple Rules.