There are wide roads and narrow roads in life, but often the one that looks the easiest leads to the most trouble. Taking the narrow road is hard and counter-cultural – here’s why we need to take it.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
When I was in fifth grade, I had to take a make-up test. I had been sick, along with four of my classmates, and so the teacher placed us out in the hall about ten feet apart to take the science test we had missed.
I was not a fan of science back then and was not prepared for this test. As we sat in the hall, I watched all the kids out of the corner of my eye begin. Some worked diligently, while others looked around as I was.
Here we were, alone in an empty hallway, our notes in the trapper keepers on our laps that we were using for a desk! Soon, surreptitious glances inside led to an all-out, unauthorized, open-book test.
Was I one of the cheaters? I’m ashamed to say I was.
I scored an unsuspicious 85 on that test, having seen enough TV to know getting 100 in my worst subject was suspect. But what I didn’t know at the time was that just because it was easy, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be hard later.
Because I never forgot the guilt and shame I felt for taking the easy way. And to this day, I have never cheated on another test.
Taking the narrow road in life
When Jesus was talking about taking the narrow gate over the wide one in these verses, He was talking about salvation. Only through Him can we be saved. Not by works, or birth, or rituals.
But when I look at this, I can’t help but think of all the wide gates and roads we choose in life. How often we take the easy route, the one everyone else is taking, over the narrow one. That narrow one is difficult, single-file, and sometimes we don’t see another soul on it for a while.
So we take the easy, wide road. The road where we lie to dodge difficult conversations. Fudge facts for a little more money. Gossip and judge rather than offer to help. And cheat to get a better grade.
But even while the wide road seems easier at the time, it doesn’t remain that way. We feel the pulling in our soul that tells us that this is the wrong path. The guilt, the discomfort, the unease.
I’m learning to listen more closely to those stirrings within me. They help me to think twice before I take another step toward that wide, obvious road. Enter that wide chasm of a gate. To look around for the narrow one that is harder to see, but will lead me where I really need to go.
Jesus is our narrow road. When we try to live more like Him, when we choose Him over what our pride, our culture, or our impatience tell us to do, then we find ourselves on the path to righteousness.
It isn’t easier, but it’s right. Because Jesus is the path to life. Today, I pray we all take our next steps on that narrow road to salvation.
Have a blessed Monday!
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