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We
have a dog we call Oreo. We don't have room for him to really run free so
he spends a good bit of his day chained up to a fifty-foot long clothesline tied
between two trees. He then has a fifteen-foot leash setup to slide on that
clothesline, so he has a pretty fair area in which to roam. Before the original
eight-foot leash broke, he had half as much square footage he could reach. Now
Oreo has more freedom, but gets tangled easier. With the shorter line he
could go around either tree twice at the most and really couldn't get into too
much trouble. Now that he has the longer reach he can get into more knots
as well as more space.
That's one of the challenges of greater
range of freedom.
Sometimes we find ourselves taking an unhealthy advantage of it. In
Galatians 5:13
Paul warns, "For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn
your
freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."
It is safer to be on a shorter leash. But
it
shows maturity to be able to handle freedom or at least the longer leash.
We have to avoid
the temptation of becoming selfish and misusing the freedom Christ gives
us.
If we turn Oreo loose, he has a tendency
to get further and further from our view and voice. Don't let that be your
tendency with your
God-given spiritual freedom. Instead be thankful that you have the
privilege of choosing to
sit at Christ's feet!
All Scripture references are from the New American Standard
Version unless otherwise noted.
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Short Leash
