No wiggle room

The sign at the park reads "Dogs must be on a leash at all times."

Of course there are those who feel rules are made for everyone else. Nothing new about that.

Then there are others who know they should follow the rules. But maybe they won't get caught this time. Yes, that happens too.

But today I saw fresh evidence for why rules can never work. Two people with dogs walking past the sign. The dogs did wear leashes but no one was holding the other end. The dogs ran free.

Rules are incapable of governing behavior. Clever people can always find a way around.

That's the Old Testament way—lip service but no heart. By contrast, it's the Jesus way—the Law of Love—that hems us in. This Law of Love leaves no wiggle room.

Let’s explore

Suppose my wife, Elizabeth, and I make plans to vacation with another couple, the Browns. With excitement and anticipation we decide to travel to Australia.

The day finally arrives for us to board a plane and fly to Sydney. The first few days we explore New South Wales. We visit Circular Quay and the Opera House. We walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, wander through the Botanic Garden, and visit Bondi Beach. We make a day trip to the Blue Mountains.

After a few days, we decide to split up. The Browns have always wanted to see Australia's wild west. They fly to Perth and journey from there. Elizabeth and I, on the other hand, want to visit the more tropical areas in Queensland so we fly to Brisbane and venture from there.

After a week apart, we meet up in Melbourne to finish our vacation together before flying home.

From now on, when we and the Browns have coffee, we will talk about that vacation. There are parts of it we will remember together—shared experiences in Sydney and Melbourne. There are other parts of it we didn't share—experiences we can only describe to one another.

As Christians, our journey with Christ is a lot like this. There are things about the Kingdom we discover together—shared understandings. And there are other things we can only describe to one another. It's one reason why two people following the same Jesus can have such different perspectives and passions.

Another Roman Road

“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”

— Paul, in Romans 5 ESV

The 'Roman Road to Salvation' is a collection of verses from Romans—a helpful guide for explaining God's plan of salvation in Jesus.

There's another Roman Road found in the first few verses of Chapter 5—the Roman Road to Endurance, Character, and Hope. Paul lays out Sufferings, Endurance, Character, and Hope as a process—a sort of assembly line, where one thing produces the next thing.

What's noteworthy here is that the thing we all want and need—Hope—is connected to the very thing we try so hard to avoid—Suffering. No one welcomes persecution, the death of a family member, a serious illness or financial setback. But most of us also avoid smaller sufferings: failures, losses, delayed gratification, deferred purchases, exercise, hard conversations, rejection, stillness, even fasts.

Could it be that our avoidance of pain and discomfort, individually and as a society, is connected to poor endurance, questionable character, and a deficit of hope?

Paul gives us a vision for suffering. Even major suffering, while uninvited, can be fertile soil for growth. And those minor sufferings? Maybe we should take more risks, denying our flesh in small ways and allowing our pride to be bruised more often. Paul says this is the key to more endurance, better character, and an abundance of hope.