Are you traveling the wide road to destruction?

Have you ever tried to put a round ball into a square shaped hole?  Did you find it to be very difficult to successfully achieve?  I think there are two ways to make this process happen.    You can either make the round ball smaller in size or you can push with force, the object through the hole.   To push the ball through the hole, is going to take time, pain, and force to achieve, but to make the ball smaller, it’s going to take trimming down around the edges.   

Neither of these options are going to be quick, easy or painless, but they will help you achieve the objective, of getting the round ball through the square shaped hole.

Now, I know there are some of you that are saying, wait, there is another option here, and you are right, there is another option.  The third option would be to make the square hole larger, and this leads me to my reading tonight.

In Matthew verse 7:13 it states Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it.

So we see here is our option number three, we can just make the opening bigger.   But to make the opening bigger, do we also see the negative consequences of our actions? 

When you decide to enter through the wide gate, the spacious gate, or to enlarge the square shaped hole, you are taking the easy way out, and the easy way will always lead to destruction. 

If you take a quick look back at your life and allow your mind to show you some of the times that you took the easy way out, or the wide gate, can you see how you short changed yourself from a growing experience?

How about that test that you didn’t study for, so you decided to cheat, and even though you received a high mark on the test, you cheated yourself out of learning the information.  You took the wide gate because it was easier, and because it is more socially acceptable.

What about the person who does drugs?

How about the 13 year old boy who is struggling to find his way in life, he is trying to figure himself out, and also at the same time, find friends who will accept him.  This young, immature boy finds a peer group that are also feeling the same things he is, but they decide to soothe the pain and hurt with alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.  

The young boy has a decision to make, is he going to take the wide road that looks to be socially acceptable, will give him the friends, and acceptance that he so badly desires, or will he listen to the voice inside of him, turn away from the friends and the drugs?   This young boy decided to do the drugs.  He decided to drink the alcohol, try the cigarettes, skip school and quickly advance into a lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, sex and lies.  

He chose the wide road… and still is

I wonder when we make these decisions do we really understand the ramifications we will face in the aftermath of them.  Do we grasp that when we look around and see that yes, everyone else is doing it, it’s because it’s the easier thing to do.  It’s the thing that is going to cause us the least amount of pain in that moment. 

BUT the pain to come, is worse than that individual moment.

In Matthew 7:14 we see another option.  We see an option that though it will hurt, there is suffering that will happen, and effort that will be needed; the outcome is joy and happiness.   (14) But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that lead away to life, and few are those who find it.

Matthew 7:14 is the reason and the answer to why people choose the wide gate.  They will experience situations that are not favorable to their flesh.  They will have to feel pain, make decisions that won’t allow them to be part of the group, and maybe even experience being an outcast, and that in itself makes the wide gate so appealing.

But just for a second, let’s look at that little boy again.  What if he knew about Matthew 7:14 and he knew that though it might hurt right now, he is doing what is right.  What if he made the decision to follow the narrow road that leads to life? 

His life would be very different now.  He wouldn’t be thirty something, living with his parents, jumping from relationship to relationship, trying to fill the void in his life that only Jesus can fill, trying to manage a co-parenting friendship, from an old relationship that started and ended because of his drug usage.  He wouldn’t feel like life has rejected him, and that he is not worth more than the lifestyle of drugs, promiscuous sex and jail. 

He wouldn’t have watched friends die from suicide, and over dosing on drugs.  He wouldn’t have been arrested numerous times, and he wouldn’t have spent time in jail.   Most importantly he would know his worth and value, because he lives with a clear mind and sees from a clear perspective, instead of a hazy view of drugs and a lowered self-worth.

Yes, the narrow way to life is going to be painful.   You will have to make decisions that are not what your friends are doing, not what you want to do, and not what your flesh is telling you to do.  You are going to have to say no to things that are acceptable to the world’s standards and deal with the immediate pain or being uncomfortable in those moments.

BUT here is what you do get. 

You don’t have to deal with a life that is headed towards destruction.  You don’t have to worry about living a life that you know Jesus did not die for you to have.  You get to have freedom in Him and in living for Him.  You get to be a role model to someone else that is unsure of what direction to take.  They can look at you and see that they don’t have to take the wide road that leads to death, but they can travel the narrow road that leads to life.

The round ball isn’t going to fit through the square shaped hole, unless it is altered to fit.  The round ball isn’t going to wish, hope or snap its fingers and be on the other side of the square shaped hole, but the round ball can pray to Jesus for His help and guidance, on how to make it through the transition.

When we have to remove things from our lives, it’s painful, it hurts, it causes confusion and fear, but deep inside, if you listen for the soft voice you will know it’s the thing that is right for you to do.  When you chose to stay who you are you are cheating yourself out of the life that was prepared for you. 

You are settling for a road that no one wants to travel on, instead of the road that leads to God.  We all have examples from our own lives where we have taken the easy way out, instead of pushing through the moment, and if we are honest with ourselves those moments, are not our shining moments.  The moments that we stand out and we can be proud of are the moments when we took the narrow road.  Those moments where we did what was right, even if it’s not what is popular, or feels good.

Those are the moments where you are allowing yourself to be changed into His image.  Those are the moments, that when you string them all together, they show you that the narrow road does leads to life.

We all have decisions to make every day, some are small, some are very large, but if we take a moment, we can clearly see two paths to take. 

One path will be the easier path, the one that feels good to your flesh and the other one might be a little bumpier and cause some pain.  But as verse 7:14 tells us when you choose the narrow gate, God will make that road straight and compressed for you.  He will start to remove obstacles from your life so your walk will not be as painful in the end, as it was in the beginning. 

When we choose the narrow gate, we are choosing to allow God to usher us into the life that He purposed for us.  We are allowing Him to shine through us and we are being an example to the world around us, that the narrow road to life is in fact the most rewarding road to choose!