There’s a thin line that separates my yard from the neighbors. It happens to contain a fence that gives identification to our common boundaries, and it allows us to be good neighbors! Encroachment, wandering animals, kids playing, or the like.
We each know where we stand.
Sometimes we need to cross the line from here to there. Where’s that gate? I’m getting too old to jump that fence!
In the same way, there’s a thin line that separates emotions, facts, temperature degrees, traffic lanes, and a laundry list of things we assume to be in place. Ever heard of the “line of fire”? You sure don’t want to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
From schooling to jobs, our lives are replete with lines that define the times we show up, eat, and go home. Even our grades for subjects or promotions are essentially lines that we aim for.
Remember as a kid? You were encouraged to color within the lines drawn on the page of the image you wanted to shade.
Do you enjoy being at the head of a line, or the last person in line? Ever thought about your heritage and the lineage of life that represents you, and your offspring long after you are gone? What straight edge do you use to have a straight line?
The concept of lines is prevalent within our lives. We trust everyone knows where the line is, but the problem is we often have no clue.
Think about it for a moment.
It’s an inestimably small line that represents the boundaries between two or more objects. How small is it? Practically invisible. A surveyor will locate boundaries based on things we don’t even see. Their bag of tools and knowledge is so different than most of us even consider. It’s described as a technique, profession, art, and science!
Surveyors work with elements of geometry, trigonometry, regression analysis, physics, engineering, metrology, programming languages, and the law. They use equipment, such as total stations, robotic total stations, theodolites, GNSS receivers, retroreflectors, 3D scanners, radios, clinometer, handheld tablets, digital levels, subsurface locators, drones, GIS, and surveying software. [Wikipedia]
Surveyors mark the boundaries that exist…without drawing a single line upon the ground! As soon as we put a marker, draw a line or build a fence, then we are broadening the line and encroaching on the territory of the opposite side.
Here’s My Thought This Morning
What separates the positive from the negative, happiness from sadness, like and dislike, from love to no love. There is no line between love and lust because they are not on the same spectrum of measurement.
Consider the point at which water boils or freezes. You are either there, or you’re not. When you get it hotter than boiling temperature then you are aiming for another line. Which is, when does it become vaporized? You’ve changed the line by temperature and status.
Most of us do not even think about it like this. We want it hot enough to cook with and cool enough to chill our hot drink.
Here’s the problem. Compare our choices to boiling and freezing. We often slip across the proverbial line without realizing we have changed our position. I mean, how small of a move does it take to slip across the line into another governing authority. Ever been to Four Corners? It’s that point where four states come together. With the plant of a finger, you can immediately be in all four states at the same time!
Morality, human intervention, even the laws that govern the universe – these are all lines that we learn to stay within so that we are right and safe.
God’s Line
God has even created boundaries for us to live by. From his perspective and rule, scripture gives us knowledge of the line to live by, and yet we see it’s often crossed. Easily. Subconsciously and by choice.
An old country song comes to mind about crossing over love’s cheating line. Really? Does love have a cheating line? With the same melody, someone else penned the words a little differently:
Don’t let me cross over God’s Mercy Line…
There is a line, a step, or decision you make where you creep over the line, or even boldly go.
What happens when you step over God’s line? Hmmm…
The Baseline of 10 Commandments
As Israel leaves Egypt, God gives them 10 basic commandments to follow that are the foundation of Judeo-Christian living. We call them the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). These are the base-line of everything that will be done for and in the future.
The very first commandment?
You shall have no other God’s before me….
God draws a line in the sand and says it like this. Me and no other! But then he goes on and explains it deeper in the next few verses.
You shall…
… have no other gods before me.
… not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
… not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:3-6 (ESV)
Stepping over the line not only affects you, but will do so for several generations to come. Staying on the correct side of the line will bless thousands of generations not yet born!
Staying within the lines that God has drawn will allow us to have our future generations blessed for thousands. Stepping over the line will only produce immediate negative results. (Exodus 20:3-6) Click To TweetWhich side do you want to be on?
Our human nature wants to know the line, and then tempt ourselves with how close we can come to the line and not cross over. You know, bend it a little bit, just don’t break it. That why we sing songs as I mentioned previously. How close can I get and not step over?
Perhaps a better declarative is, don’t even let me get close to the line! God, help me keep my focus that’s in line with your vision of me.