Trust you are having an AMAZING day! Let me jump right into todays blog.
In one of the very first hip hop classics Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five announced to the world, “Don't Push Me Cause I'm close to the edge.” In this blog I would like to write about just that. The edge or the line of demarcation in our lives. What's it like to be pushed and to find yourself standing on the edge. To be standing on the line and on one side is life—and on the other side could mean death. Not just a spiritual death but a natural death.
First of all what is the edge? The edge can easily be defined as the point between complete safety and complete and utter disaster. Now in life this is the area for instance on the road where you may have a guard rail. The guard rail keeps you on the side of complete safety so you will not fall into utter disaster. The law keeps you on the side of complete safety with laws and prevents you from falling into utter disaster. Now just like a guard rail or the law we typically do not pay attention to it as we travel through life. Why? Because to be honest there is no need to focus on them unless we are getting close to the edge. And see even if we find ourselves getting close to the edge we know we are protected. We will not fall—as long as we stay on the right side of the guard rail. As long as we stay on the right side of the law. The right side of the line of demarcation.
For instance you are driving down the road. The speed limit is 75 and you are driving 75. Now you know you’ll not get stopped for speeding as long as you stay at 75 or less. You know this. You also know that if you sneezed and pushed the gas a fraction more you would be going over the limit. But while I am sure some people have gotten a ticket for going a mile over most of us understand that you get 15 miles over before you get points in most states. So what do we do—if its 75 we push it to the limit. We go 89 or 14 miles over. Why? We want to take it right to the absolute limit.
On the road there are things we call guardrails. They protect us from falling over the edge. Now the thing about guardrails is this. If you hit them at a fairly high speed they will do serious damage to your car. But the upside is this. They might save your life. See a guardrail will prevent you from killing yourself when you have pushed it to the absolute limit.
But let’s go deeper. You know you typically get 5 days you can be late on your light bill and then they call you. That's what you are thinking. So you wait through day one. Day two and day three. Day four and day five come and you know you are at the absolute limit. But you don’t get a call. So apart of you now wonders… have they changed the policy? So you push it one more day. One more day. One inch closer to that line of demarcation. In fact you are putting a toe over the line of demarcation and then boom, your lights are turned off.
You see this woman and you know you are unequally yoked. She is beautiful and smart and well educated. And you are thinking… maybe … just maybe she might be the one. She’s everything you have always looked for in a spouse but you are saved and she snorts a little something, something on occasions just to clear her nerves of course. Not a lot… but every now and then to take the edge off. So you propose to her and now you are married. And now coke has led to heron and now you with your saved self-realize that you have stepped over the line of demarcation as you wait for her in your car to come out of a drug treatment center.
Now many of you may have not made such a mistake with a spouse. You may have never had a speeding ticket and I applauded you for that. But you have made a mistake. It might have been cheating on a test. Possibly taking something that did not belong to you and getting caught. Maybe you told a lie and it ended up costing you a relationship. So think back on a mistake you made. Not a minor but a major mistake. The thing you did that makes you think you know if I had it to do over again, I would have never. What would that be?
“Had I never gone out that night I would have never have met that guy. And had I not met him I would not be a single mom with two kids and no father.”
“I would have never have accepted that job so I would not have been tempted to commit a felony.”
“If I would have never gotten in the car, I would have never have fallen asleep. And had I not fallen asleep, I would not have had that accident.”
What is that thing you look back and say “I would have never?” What's your “I would never?”
When you think about it—what was your line of demarcation? What was the line that you know you should not have crossed but knowingly and with full knowledge of the danger involved crossed anyway? I can assure you, there were caution signs. There were road blocks but you chose to ignore the sign and drive around the road block and once you land in the ditch what do we say? I should have listened. So what were your signs?
There were signs you should never have married her. Dating her was fine but marrying her? But you did it anyway and you crossed the line of demarcation. You know you should not have let those bills pile up and now you are in bankruptcy court. You crossed the line and you did it… knowingly. Your parents told you to take better care of your teeth. But you didn’t and you crossed the line of demarcation and as you sit in the dentist chair getting that root canal and you realize that you did it… knowingly.
Now what I am about to share with you is not just spiritual awareness… it’s just plain old good common sense for life awareness. People who succeed in life understand that they must clearly see the line of demarcation in their lives—and never cross it. Please write this one down because it can change your life. People who succeed in life clearly see where the line of demarcation is in their lives—and never cross it. Because when they do so their conscious is pricked to the point that next time they will force themselves to slow down.
Be it to slow down in a relationship, with their financial decisions or their health. Crossing the line will make you think twice and if you don’t stop you may spend the rest of your life saying once again I wish I had never.... I wish I never… I wish I never… I wish I had never. How many times in this life can you waste time saying “I wish I had never! I wish I had never! I wish I had never! I wish I had never! I wish I had never! I wish I had never!”
Now the title of the series of blogs (and I know already it will be a series because it’s far too much for one sitting) will be The Big Comeback. My job in writing this blog is to share with you the way to avoid disaster from the beginning and the thing I want to share with you first and foremost is to listen to the Holy Spirit within you. Not just a cutesy listen. Sometimes I can ask my son to do something and he will listen—with courtesy and respect. But go deeper when you listen to the Holy Spirit. Listen to it with your heart. Why? Because when you listen with your heart you will obey the calling. And when you obey you are consciously determine that you will walk in obedience.
Okay that's all I can share tonight but there is so much more because as we move closer to 2012 its my prayer that you avoid the same mistakes of 2011, and this blog will help you toward that end.
Oh yeah... Remember today--this day, is the first day of the rest of your life.
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