I sold my soul to Jesus and since then I've had no fun

This is a lyric from from The Captain And The Hourglass by the wonderful Laura Marling. From what I gather, she was a practising Christian during some of her teen years but has since moved away from the faith. I'm guessing that the line from the song reflects, at least in part, her experience of Christianity. How sad is that? But I guess every Christian has felt that way from time to time, that it's all about a list of Dos and (more of these!) Don'ts.

Take, for example, the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. This passage is often taken as a set of rules that Christians ought to follow; 'Do this. Don't do that.' But what if, instead, it was a description of how life will be for those living under God's power? Dallas Willard says in The Divine Conspiracy that Jesus' aim with the Sermon was to help his listeners understand 'the nature of the kingdom into which they are now invited'. Willard goes on:

'Far from being additional laws to crush us or show us we can't make it on our own (of course we can't!), the separate parts [of the Sermon] are distinct perspectives on the sweet life of love and power, of truth and grace, that those who count on Jesus can even now lead in his kingdom.'

Now doesn't that lift your spirit, rather than crushing it with a list of rules that nobody could ever dream of living up to?