Boundaries are a gift
I am absolutely a “rules were made to be broken” person. Rules are simply guidelines. If there are rules or boundaries, I want to color outside the line. The other side seems better.
As I wrote in The Anchor, we all have threads woven into our personal fabric.
We are all given threads in life, certain characteristics and traits that make us who we are. Some threads we are born with, and some we acquire along the way. This is not a process we control; we do not select the threads we are handed. We can, however, control the weaving. We must. We cannot sit by idly and allow the world to make of us whatever it chooses.
Throughout my early years, I had to cut some of the threads being woven into my life so that they would not be the predominant colors of my fabric. Others, however, I embraced, allowing them to be more defining.
Done well, our threads can be a lifeline, a guide. Our threads can help us manage the journey through life. The uncontrollables are inevitable, but the threads that display who we are can provide a point of reference, a perspective from which to view the world, a deep understanding of who we are and where we are going.
Well, one of the threads within me is fighting boundaries. I am in good company, because we all have this thread to some extent. It started in the garden in Genesis 1.
In Genesis 1, everything that God created was described as “very good.” From the sun, to the moon, to the water, to the animals, to the plants, to the beautiful Garden of Eden, all was very good. In the middle of Eden, God placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, apparently a tree that had incredibly enticing, beautiful fruit.
The first man, Adam, was given the job of tending and watching over the garden, a lush land full of rivers and incredible plants, a place of life and peace. He was simply to care for the garden, and he was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the land. All else was his, under his control, but his boundary was not to eat the gorgeous fruit of this tree. The penalty for crossing the boundary was death. This was the first time that death was mentioned in the Bible. And, death, as we will see later in Scripture, would be Adam’s separation from God.
Most of us have heard the rest of the story in the Garden of Eden. Adam crosses the line and is persuaded to eat the prohibited fruit. The fruit was just too beautiful to pass up. (As a sidenote, I once saw this amazing frog in the Amazon Jungle. As I was about to pick it up, my friend from Colombia urgently stopped me. He explained how the frog was poisonous and the law of the jungle is that if anything possesses that kind of beauty, it is deadly. There is a great lesson in life in that law of the jungle.) So, Adam ate the fruit, lost his job, and was separated from God and the garden.
Adam’s story is the story of mankind. Each and every one of us has boundaries, and, for many, including myself, boundaries are this line that we should dance around, consider crossing. This is just a natural desire inside of us. The problem is that by focusing on the forbidden, we miss the freedom that we have within the boundary. This is what happened with Adam. He had it all, literally, but he was enticed to eat the forbidden fruit.
By focusing on life outside of the boundary, we miss the true joy, peace, and abundance that are found within the boundary. Said differently, we miss the gifts that we have been given because of what we don’t have. We, naturally, always strive for what is on the other side.
It is true that in the Bible, followers of Jesus are called to a different way of life. There are absolutely boundaries. God created man and God has commands. Just like Adam, within God’s words written to mankind, there are boundaries. But, society seems to have painted these boundaries in a negative light. The boundaries are perceived as a set of rules and regulations that must be followed. The focus naturally becomes life outside the boundaries.
This viewpoint could not be further from the truth. To view life following Christ or the Bible as some type of filtered life is to miss the joy, the freedom, the life within the boundaries.
Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Psalm 1:1-3
Who doesn’t want to “bear fruit in each season?” Who doesn’t want to live well in each season of life?
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, followed this up by saying that a key to a joy-filled life was to live with discipline.
Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. Proverbs 1:2-3
Nevertheless, as I already admitted myself, mankind will always seek life outside of the God-given boundaries. We will always begin to focus on life outside the lines, which is exactly the reason that Jesus came to earth. He came with a message of grace and forgiveness for life lived outside the boundaries. He came with a call to steward well the life, the gifts that we have been given within the boundaries.
So, next time you are enticed to focus on what you don’t have, remember what you do have. Remember the gifts you have been given. They are gifts to be stewarded with excellence. And, for us all, we must remember the grace that Christ has given us when we cross the line. He died, giving us grace.
Thank God for the life, the gifts, within the boundaries.
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Today, we start the One Year Bible reading. As a reminder, the goal is to read the Bible in a year. For a list of the Scripture to read each day, check here. Audio is available also. Pin this site to the Home Screen on your phone. Or, if you like a hard copy, order those on Amazon: One Year Bible, ESV, One Year Bible, NLT.