I like playing soccer. But playing pick-up soccer is pretty difficult when you do not have any goals. Sometimes you have to improvise with a pair of shoes, a few backpacks, or if you are really lucky, a set of orange highway department cones.
Mmmm…. those look like some mighty fine cones ….. perfect soccer goals!
If you want to mess with the opposing soccer team, just move those improvised goals when they are not looking. When on the opponent’s side of the field, sneak that one cone farther apart from the other one to make that goal wider. Then just wait a few minutes. Pretty soon, you’ll be hearing, “Morledge! What are you doing messing around with the goals?! You can not make the goals wider for you!”
There is always a temptation to try to widen the goals. But it does not just happen in soccer. It also happens when we think about God and salvation. How wide is God’s mercy when we consider who will be saved and who will not be saved? What a troublesome question! In an age drawn more to the love of God as opposed to His justice, does human sentimentality confuse us in our understanding of the parameters God has set for salvation?
