There are some roads in outback Queensland that are long, very long, and straight. Where there are dangerous drops there are guard rails. Also where the shoulders are soft (dangerous to drive on because its so easy to loose control) there are warning signs.
The sheep and cattle stations fence their properties and where the fence crosses the road they put in a cattle grid – a gate for cattle but vehicles can pass over them with out stopping. Some grids are narrow and you have to cross them dead-centre. Misjudging the width is disastrous. I had a good friend who lost it on the soft shoulder leading up to the grid and plowed sideways into the posts either side of the gap. He didn’t fit. He died.
Picture looking down one of these roads. It is a strip of bitumen. The shoulders are soft and dangerous to drive on. A few feet away from the edge of the bitumen is a guard rail. Beyond the guard rail is a cliff. At the end of the road, far off on the horizon, the road narrows at one of the cattle grids. You’re driving.
It’s good to drive on the road. Getting off it becomes decidedly uncomfortable. It’s harder to steer and keep control. You must make corrections along the way or you will hit the guard rail…the last line of defense before losing it totally and careering over a cliff.
We may weave from side to side down the narrow path. Sometimes we go off to the side but we see the guard rails looming and pull back towards the centre of the road.
Some people make a full wreck of their lives and crash into the guard rails. But they have been guarded enough so that recovery is possible and they live to drive again.
Then there are some who deliberately head for the guard rails. They crash through and plummet down the cliff. The end.
Whoever strays from the path of prudence comes to rest in the company of the dead.
Proverbs 21:16
But there is a more important reason to stay on the road. For there is a narrow gate at the end and we approach at high speed. Either we are dead-centered and pass through…or we don’t!
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:14
Just a side thought here – imagine driving the same road in the dark. Whew…thank goodness for headlights 😉
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:105
The truth is a narrow path. But there is a strip between the edge of the path to the guard rails. This is the strip of Grace – so guard rail to guard rail is what I would describe the width of grace.
In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality.
Proverbs 12:28
And immortality comes from knowing this one thing:
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:12
Jesus is our salvation.