My daughter has a knack for squeezing into places she shouldn’t.
She climbs under our kitchen chair then freaks out when she gets “trapped” between the four legs.
She squishes between the desk and file cabinet, then squalls for help when she tries to exit a different way.
She attempts to dismount a chair through the back and then hollers when her head won’t fit through without turning it a specific direction.
There are a lot of tight, narrow spots that she can get stuck… And believe it or not, us adults can get stuck too.
Not in narrow places, but in the wide, open spaces of complacency and procrastination.
Which brings us today’s short, simple, clear yet surprisingly heart-thudding parable:
The Parable of the Narrow Door/Path found in Luke 13:23-30.
It is a rather short parable, so let’s take a direct look from The Message:
A bystander said, “Master, will only a few be saved?”
He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you’re going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you’ll find the door locked and the Master saying, ‘Sorry, you’re not on my guest list.’
“You’ll protest, ‘But we’ve known you all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with his abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about me.’
“That’s when you’ll find yourselves out in the cold, strangers to grace. You’ll watch Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets march into God’s kingdom. You’ll watch outsiders stream in from east, west, north, and south and sit down at the table of God’s kingdom. And all the time you’ll be outside looking in—and wondering what happened. This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last.”
Did you catch all of that? Let’s dig a little deeper and pull out some action steps of what this parable means for us.
*Put your mind on your life with God. We can’t just float through life, “hanging around the Jesus neighborhood,” saying a half-hearted prayer a couple of times of week and trying to make it to church when it fits our schedule. Which God isn’t about rule, He does emphasize relationship. And what does every good relationship involve? Attention. Time. Focus. Love. THAT is how we shall be invited into His Kingdom.
*Knowing about God is different from KNOWING God. It is kind of like celebrities. Do we know ABOUT Mr. Famous Pants whoever? Yes. It’s called Google, folks. But can we in good faith that we KNOW them, like buddy-buddy-more-than-Facebook friend status? Probably not. It isn’t enough just to know that God exists. We have to intimately know Him.
*If your heart truly belongs to God, rest assured that you won’t be excluded. I really think we are going to be surprised on who we do and don’t see in heaven when we get there. Although at that point, we won’t much care because hey– It’s heaven! In the meantime, we should be concerned with loving Jesus with our heart, soul, mind and strength. Choosing this way of life is the path less traveled in our world of “now” and “more” and “me, me, me.”
What are your thoughts on this parable? Does it speak to you in a specific way? How can you choose to take the “narrow path” and follow Jesus daily? I welcome your feedback. Comment below.
Let’s get unstuck from our tendency to “do it tomorrow” or just hang out in the Jesus neighborhood. Let’s knock on the door and walk on in.
Following Him Close,
“There are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” ~Luke 13:30 NIV
Linking up today with Kelli via Unforced Rhythms, Laura at Playdates with God, and Joan’s Beauty in His Grip. Oh! And be sure to join our #EverydayJesus link-up community right here at 7 Days Time every Thursday!
