How big is a fine line? We hear that all the time, "There's a fine line between...." Sometimes, we hear it when we are talking about right and wrong. What color is that fine line? In sports, it is usually a line about three inches defining the boundary and it is white chalk (baseball and football) to let us know when the play is out of bounds. Keeping with that analogy though, I think the color is gray and that the line is about 30 feet wide. Listen to us, as fans, and the analysts on the coverage: doubt, challenge, and speak about the entire moral depravity of the call ("That call cost them the game!!"). I don't need to give you examples. You already know them.
What kind of lines do we have in life? Where is the boundary between right and wrong? God gave us clear lines, but as in sport, we treat them as negotiable. Look at Genesis 3 when Satan comes to the Garden, man and woman living in perfection, and introduces his speech with, "Did God really say?" (3:1) Even in perfection, we learn man was weak. "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and that you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (3:4 and 5) You know the rest of the story.
Suddenly there is gray. Gray, long and deep. Where did that clear line go?
It is my humble opinion as someone who has waded into too much gray that I've become drab as a category of race/ethnicity. White. African American, Hispanic Non-white? No, Gray. My sin-filled eyes see dilemma. God sees right and wrong. My sin-filled heart sees a decision. God sees his clear path as spelled out in his Word. My sin-filled mind justifies. God's Son is my only true justification.
At times like that, when I'm seeing gray, I know to turn to God's Word and to God in prayer to help me stay out of the swamp called Gray. It was available to Adam and Eve, and it is available to me. Satan holds no power over me. Christ gives us the power and the ability to turn Satan away.
We pray we stay out of the gray. We pray we turn to Christ in prayer and in his Word when the gray approaches.
Hope Men's Ministry
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