The OCD Effect

Where do you place your trust?

"My career ensures security for my family."

"My best friends mean the world to me. They always get me through a bad break-up."

"Well, I have a Golden Retriever that's really amazing..."

Okay. That's fair. But I mean with your life.

"No, really, Sparky would save me from a burning building.."

Have you ever seen that show True Life on MTV? For those of you that haven't, True Life is a documentary-style show that focuses each episode on a different issue going on in the lives of a few different people, and follows them as their situations progress. Really interesting stuff. Perhaps one of the most compelling episodes was the one about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

If you have or know anyone that has had OCD, you know that it can be an absolute prison for those suffering from the disease. One of the men being followed on True Life had to put deodorant on in a very precise way, and even kiss his girlfriend who he was living with goodbye a series of times, needing to get it "right" before he would let her go to work. His OCD had gotten to the point where it was not only holding himself captive to its power over him, but also allowing it to trickle over to someone he cared deeply for. Can you imagine that?

I can. I used to treat God that way.

I grew up in a denomination of Christianity that fostered feelings of guilt for sins committed, and required a series of certain actions from you before these sins could be absolved. It taught that entrance into heaven was based more on how many good works you do than accepting and believing in what Jesus did for us on the cross to cleanse us of our sins.

And that mindset is hard to get rid of. Suddenly the tender and loving Father of the Bible becomes nothing more than the Grand Judge, the Great Critic. I professed with my lips my belief in His love without believing that same blessed reality in my heart.

Is this you? Let me show you what this type of obsessive-compulsive faith looks like:

• Repeated prayers, not due to the overflow of concern for your or someone you care about's well-being, but because you feel as though the only way to "win God over" to your side in the matter is through asking Him for things incessantly.
• The silent thoughts of "This -insert loving Biblical truth here- doesn't apply to me, that applies to a real Christian."
• Setting impossible goals for yourself that you know you can't achieve.
• Obsessing over past mistakes/sins.
• Selective memory - choosing to remember negative situations instead of positive ones.

Are you exhausted and defeated after reading that list? Because I sure was exhausted living that way.

Now read something just a little TOO good to be true:

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."-Romans 3:23-24

Except it isn't too good to be true. It's 100% true.

And because it's true, we don't have to complete some large algebra equation in order to gain approval and access to God. And no hokey-pokey dancing or mindless prayer repetitions will ensure His blessing in our lives, either. He is not a genie, He is our Heavenly Father. To put it simply, He knows what's best for us, and we do not. His insight, His power, and His omniscience are all much too vast for our limited minds to comprehend. That is why it would really behoove us to simply unclench our jaws and just 

GIVE EVERYTHING OVER TO HIM ALREADY.

I don't know who this guy is. But he definitely needs to.

When we don't accept that Jesus' death on the cross is enough to cover our sins and imperfections, it would really be just as bad as if we were to deny a drink of water from someone when we were suffering from dehydration in the middle of a desert. We are in effect saying to Jesus, "Thanks anyway Lord, but I got this covered."

Sound ridiulous? It is. We would be absolutely crazy not to accept such a mind-blowing gift of mercy and grace.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." -Ephesians 2:8-9

And all we have to do is ask for it. When we believe in Him, we can trust in Him. And when we trust in Him, we can let go of our death grip on life, and finally -finally!- experience His peace.

So whatcha waiting for?

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” -Deuteronomy 31:6

Trust in Him. He loves you too much to let you spin out of control.