Rocking Chairs

Isabella has this little $2 plastic chair that she LOVES.  I mean, she will get it out, push it around, pull it from room to room, sit in it, get up, move it to another spot, sit in it again, and on and on...It's crazy how much she enjoys that chair!


This morning, in the midst of playing with her chair, she discovered that she could lean and make the chair rock back and forth.  The problem is - it's not a rocking chair.  Not at all.  In fact, this chair is barely solid enough to hold her up while sitting normally (hence, the cheapness).  So, grinning happily, she leans forward and tilts the chair.  Then she leans back and tilts it further.  Over and over, forward and back, progressively leaning more and more away from the chair's center of gravity.  Of course, you know what happened next.  She leaned too far back and - BONK! - on the floor she went...


Five minutes of tears and snot later...


I'm sitting there rocking her in my arms, wishing I had been fast enough to catch her, and rewinding the whole thing in my head.  You know what kept coming to mind while I pondered?


A line.  Specifically, a line established by God as the standard between right and wrong.  I know that seems like a wild connection, but hear me out.


I think sometimes we treat our freedom in Christ like that chair.


Christ came to free us from the law through grace (Romans 6:14), true.  But that doesn't mean we don't have any limitations to our living, that we can just do whatever we want to do (Romans 6:1).  Christ came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), and so there's this line drawn for us in the sand.  A line that differentiates us from the world.  A line that sets us apart as holy for the purpose of glorifying our Father in heaven.  And yet, I see people stepping closer and closer to the line.  I see this chair being tilted forward and back, precariously close to falling.


I hear people say, "Nothing's wrong with having one or two beers.  It's not like I'm getting drunk."  Or they say, "Just because the music I listen to has cuss words in it doesn't mean I'm cussing."  Oh, and this is my favorite - "I'm not lusting.  I'm just appreciating God's creation."


Are you kidding me?!


All over the world there are believers (and I include myself in this) getting as close to the line as they possibly can, abusing and making a mockery of the grace that they've been shown.  To quote Paul, "By no means!"


Since when did it become okay to do wrong (by Christ's standards, not the world's) and then justify it in some way or other?  If we are doing anything that causes or could cause a brother or sister in Christ to stumble, to trip up, to fall into sin - we are wrong. We. Are. Sinning. (Romans 14:13-23)


So, what should we do?  What's the take away?


We should be trying to live a life as far away from the line as possible.  We should be sitting in that chair as still as can be, or not even sitting in the chair at all.  Know why?  Because if we don't stop leaning, if we don't stop playing around right on the edge of danger - we'll fall.  Big time.  With a bruise and bump on our noggin to show for it.  While I didn't let Isabella fall on purpose, that fall certainly taught her a lesson.  Later, she went back to it very carefully, making sure that she didn't lean at all.  I don't think God wants to see His children hurting, but He certainly isn't beyond letting us "fall out of our chair" to teach us a lesson (Proverbs 3:11-12, Hebrews 12:4-11).