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This essay is long, but another of a series of God teaching events for me… God will repeat scenarios until we learn what He is trying to teach us. I appreciate this lesson because it helped clear away the jetsam in my brain… Just know that the Holy Spirit blows the dust from your goggles so you may see… Thanks God!
Crossing Lines, 23Aug
Ah, sitting in the airport… Uses up three precious hours of your life before your flight even leaves….
But when you need time to decompress in life, like I did this week, it’s not so bad, actually reflection time well spent…
So, hour to kill, or maybe hour to live? It is air travel you know, you just never know… No worries… better than driving…
There’s Ipads at every seat? cool… a virtual social networking tool to kill the time that you could be using instead to network with the other real people… but here’s all of us isolating people punching away at our iPads…
The server comes up from the bar… “You asked for help?” Three of us looked puzzled… Oh! the one gentleman had hit the request for help, couldn’t figure out how to order a beer… Apparently he already had one too many! He said this is the most expensive beer he had ever bought. I said “well you don’t need it, maybe you should’ve just used your money going to the duty free and we could have all cracked open some liquid refreshment…” Laughs all around… that started the chit chat, small talk you know that you get to enjoy in public places, grocery store lines, the dentist office… killing the time… this isolating Ipads? nope, don’t need those anymore! we had fallen into one of those delightful fun open conversations, I will call it “Words with Strangers”…
This buzzed gentleman asked me and the other man next to me if he and I were a couple, we both say no. He asked why we were each traveling; we both said for business… the gentleman to my left works for a security company and told us about the terrible food at his conference. I tell them about the great food at my conference, especially at the gala party – the oysters.. I tell them about the exciting science that I have been learning, about its uses to help the world … Our buzzed gentleman stops me mid-sentence and exclaims to security guy: “Wow, she’s pretty AND smart!” Blush… Security guy put his hand to his head in embarrassment. Buzz says, “well, she is pretty isn’t she?”. Security nods, says “yes she is”, but cringes, embarrassed for me… I start to say “it’s ok, I just lost 35 lbs, it’s nice to hear that, it’s a novelty for me, I have been working out at home, at church…”… I can’t finish my sentence because Buzz interrupts with: “Wow, she is pretty AND smart AND goes to church!!” Ha, smiles…. “Well your smile just lights up your face, you glow” (no I am not making this up, he really said that, like SO many have since my awakening last December). I don’t recount this to boast but to say that yes, Jesus changes your whole life and even how you look. Jesus makes you shine.
I can’t help but smile, it was sweetly said, in an inebriated cute way, nothing more… no harm yet… but ok, I REALLY want to get back to my science talk!!
And then we change the subject… Talking about food and then alcohol again… Security guy told us of his boss throwing a fabulous party.. I told them about the Canadian whiskey mixed with maple syrup and lime juice and cherry biters at our party, delicious! Buzz says, “I bet you enjoyed them, huh?”
“Sure I did, yum!” Leading me, he then says “I think you enjoyed quite a few of them, I bet you really REALLY enjoyed them, huh?”…
SCREECH!!!!!! Oops….
There my friends is where I felt the tipping point of the conversation… I SCREECHED it to a halt… Bells and whistles, flashing lights, you name it… Signals a blaring, stop the train! Stop this conversation before it goes too far! …
There my friends is where the boundary lines needs to be drawn and held… Buzz can’t draw the line, his brain/mouth filter dissolved with his last pounded beer. I was not offended, just aware… He was leading a conversation down the wrong path for a married woman, for any unknown woman…. a conversation that is not proper often occurs because someone has blurred the lines… He was intrigued about my partying more than my science that was for sure… So, I had to step back and not cross that line. He erased his line, BUT I still saw my line, and I held it… Luckily, I also had “security” next to me. My eyes are open, my sober ears alerted my sensibility which alerted my mouth to correct my worded path. I halted the conversation with… “oh no, they only let us have two drink tickets, I didn’t have too much fun.”… Whew… Saved the line… “Security” then changed the subject for me.
A famous weatherman slipped into a trap a few years ago… some eastern European mafia girls plied him with alcohol, drugged him and ran up his credit accounts like crazy $100,000 over a weekend. Devious! Devil’s play…
Oh how in a devious situation someone could have taken this Buzz guy for a ride, emotionally at least… Could have blurred the line on purpose, like those eastern mafia girls, for financial gain…. Both parties could have given the devil delight in the banter. But it’s not right, not righteous, not even smart…
Yes, sometimes you feel the devil pull you across lines sometimes… And if there is a willing partner or player whose own devil is working hard at pulling them past their lines, well you can get that “snowball effect”… or maybe call it dancing with fire… Either way, you are apt to get burned…. A Genesis song, Mad Man Moon, speaks to this… “And took off in the air. I flew to places which the clouds never see, Too close to the deserts of sand”. The lyricist never gets to come back from the desert sadly – BUT God would take you back in a heartbeat, God would forgive if you truly repented…
Solomon speaks to this reality, urging God to hear the repenting cries:
1Kings 8:46 “When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive to their own lands, far away or near; 47 and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly’; 48 and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them …… 49 then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. 50 And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy…”
A book my pastor gave me was my flight companion… I read it in the spring, and am re-reading it now. Guess what? I missed a chapter… read that as I sat safely on my flight, away from Buzz who probably missed his flight… “Security” was on my plane though, good deal…
Guess what? This book chapter four fits EXACTLY this scenario… Figures… Yeah I shouldn’t be surprised how God works in my life, always tossing me the right answer, the corrective learning situation… and then backs it up with text from the Bible!! So in Chapter 4 of Rob Fuquay’s book “The God We Can Know” he writes about knowing God’s care… Jesus is the gatekeeper for the sheep. the gate represents security. Sheep would go out through the gate for enjoyment – the gate led to joy. The sheep came in through the gate at night at the dark times for security. Who was in charge of the gate? Jesus.
Jesus, the shepherd, our shepherd, our LIGHT of the world, would let the sheep go in and out (just like us)… but when it’s time to stay in for security at night, the shepherd sleeps against the door to keep the sheep in his fold. Jesus is our gatekeeper… The scripture is John 10: 7-9 “So again Jesus said to them: ‘Very truly I tell you I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture’.”
So yes, as we, HIS sheep, look for Jesus as our gatekeeper. We are really supposed to be looking for that gate, that boundary line. Jesus will hold us in with His body, hold us as one of His own. And if we are lost, Jesus will still come find us and shine HIS LIGHT on our dark path. His real shepherd flesh and blood saves us… So that we are not deviled away by our enemies or by ourselves. Yes God will take us back, but it’s safer and it’s less painful if we stay away from crossing the line in the first place.
Will I approach that line again? Will you? Another day another adventure… I even saw that line drawn and redrawn and approached that very evening… a train car with six 20-year olds quite punchy from a night of rabble-rousing at the ballpark… Thank God, I was a fan of their team, slid right into their train car and conversation… One dude starts at me for sitting there and we banter back and forth, in fun… His foul mouth at the other guys (not me) wakes up the sensibility of another toasted 20 yr old who said, “Hey, watch your mouth, there’s a lady here”… See, there are people who know the lines of etiquette… There are lines being upheld every day.
So you better believe that we will all approach those boundary lines again and again! And I won’t be afraid to step out in fear of someone crossing that line. I won’t let fear rule me. I mention this story to a church friend and he motions like a baseball player drawing a line in the dirt with his foot. Yeah draw your own line, hold your line, and get ready for the next pitch.
I was about to finish this essay in my head as I put my son to bed. He told me how he told his friend that night that God does not want us to be afraid. Truth from the mouths of babes, he is a spirit-led boy! He’s right, God does not want us to be afraid… God wants us to prepare ourselves for life… God says “I AM with you always”!!!
I pray God’s grace always to keep my and everyone’s eyes open, and our boundary lines clear… I pray for others seeing the LIGHT of Jesus that God sheds on my lines so I may plainly see them. Thanks God for security, for Jesus, and for the opportunity to step up to the plate. Batter up!
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Debbie Upper 