Toe-ing the line …

I remember the story, but not who told it.

It was about a father who took his strong-willed daughter to a Lakers basketball game. They climbed the stairs to their seats far up from the game floor and, as soon as they found their seats, the little girl went running down the stairs.

The father went chasing after her, thinking this action would likely be repeated. So, when he caught up with his daughter, he told her she could stroll along the stairs, but had to stay away from the floor where the game was being played. He explained this as they settled into their seats, and he asked if she understood. The little girl nodded, then immediately bolted from her seat, bounded down the stairs all the way to the floor of the arena where she walked to the line of the floor, flopped her foot just over the line, and looked back up at her father with a mischievous grin!

We’re a lot like that little girl when it comes to our interaction with our heavenly Father. Our challenges to God or our disobedience may not be as brazen as the people of Israel making a golden calf while Moses was away talking with God. Instead, it’s often extending a toe just over the line.

The problem is, a little excess leads to a lot of sin.

Another story I know of personally was a time when I turned my car onto a street and was almost side-swiped by an elder of the church who was speeding his way to church. He had a habit of just pushing it a little on the accelerator. He also pushed it a little at the dinner table, which kept his waistline a little enlarged. And his success in business kept his spending habits a little inflated. Overall, he had a habit of pushing multiple areas of his life “just a little.” He lived life with one toe just over the line.

Many of us live that way, testing God by seeing just how close to the line we can be and still be “safe” with Him. We look for a place where we can get away with the excess we desire, and that search moves us away from God rather than closer to Him.

Jesus addressed the issue of this kind of thinking in Matthew 5 when He revealed that bold action isn’t required to commit sin, but rather the wrong desires will achieve the same result. We read these words of Jesus in Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

It doesn’t take the act of adultery to sin, it takes dipping the toe of our thoughts into areas that are inappropriate, resulting in inner desires that are as wrong as the actions themselves. The closer we stand to the line, the further away we are from God, and the more likely we’ll cross over just far enough to enter into sin.

Where are you standing in your relationship with God: by His side, or by the line? Do you long to dangle a toe over the line, or desire to please your heavenly Father?

Scotty