We all know the sage advice most of us were given when learning to drive a vehicle … keep it between the lines. While I do pretty good at keeping my vehicle between the lines while driving, bad at it while parking. Sometimes I pull into a spot and I’m hopelessly parked crooked. I’m even worse at parallel parking. My vehicle is really out of the lines then. (I loathe parallel parking.)

But what happens when we apply this advice to our spiritual life? Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” … It’s easy to drive when the highway is smooth and the lanes are large. It is easy to keep going. But when the road is narrow and dark, we want to just stay still until the darkness has passed. We just want to ‘park it’. It’s not easy – this travelling the narrow way. The lines are so faded you cannot discern a lane at all. Often the way is so narrow, two vehicles cannot pass. The potholes are deep and the way is full of curves and twists.

But it is our path to walk that narrow road; to follow Jesus’ commandments. We are not to put our faith in because the way gets difficult whether it’s due to illness, depression or loss. We have to keep pushing forward toward that narrow gate. Anyone can walk a main road, but it takes faith to travel that narrow lane. It is in that dark, twisting road where we learn what it is to trust in God’s direction … we learn the true meaning of ‘keeping it between the lines’.