Where Have I Been

Excerpt:
"And so when I consider the way I am treated by Christ, the degree of kindness with which He guides me, I know that as Napolean said, I would die for Him. And I would not die for Him because He threatens me; I would die for Him because He loves me, and because I am part of a a community of people who are committed to one another, to the world, and to the mission of Jesus."
-by Donald Miller in "Searching for God Knows What"

I urge you to check out the link of this book, it's not to sell it to you, it's a link to Donald Miller's site as he is talking about finishing the book. . .great insight. . .brilliant thinker.
It's interesting that I just read this because we just had a discussion sat. night about some of what's in the quote. Basically, it revolved around doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do as opposed to doing it because of a bad consequence. We discussed how the church has used power and manipulation to "scare people into heaven" and we also talked about if it's ever right to scare someone with a consequence to keep them from doing something (or making them do something).
Someone mentioned that if there was a consequence, then they would do the opposite just to prove a point, and then deal with the consequence be it jail or whatever. They only wanted to live their lives by deciding what is right, and then choosing to do right. But, how does a child know that it's not right to stick their hand into the flashing and pretty light we call fire? Don't we have the "scare" them sometimes to help them learn? No matter how nice and loving you are, telling a child their hand will burn and turn crispy just isn't going to be fun for them.
On the other hand, we are adults, and I do believe very much in doing what is right from a standpoint of love instead of just following rules. Rules are what Jesus railed against with the Pharisees, but it wasn't the actual rule that was bad. . .the rule originally was beautiful and meant to provide memory and significance. But the rules became the object instead of the memory and significance. How do we re-shift back to memory, focus on God not rules, love for others that compels us to serve them instead of pity for them, a move back to servant leadership as oppposed to the Me-focused world we live in?
I don't know, what do you all think? Can you live in one world, but live by another world's code? How do I reconcile so much of what it means to be a christian with the (American) world we live in? Guess I'll keep working on that one. . .