Strait and Narrow Path

We talk about the gospel as being the “strait and narrow path.” The reason that the path is strait and narrow isn’t because God is mean-spirited and a killjoy and likes to watch us teeter and wobble as we try to stay on this cruelly tiny tightrope that He’s set up for us. We all have flaws and weaknesses and live in a fallen world. Out of the infinite field of possible decisions that we could make, nearly all of them will lead to more pain and misery for ourselves and the world in general in the long run. There is a strait and narrow path of choices that lead to sustainable happiness and peace and our loving Heavenly Father in all his compassion and mercy has shown it to us. It may be more useful to imagine this strait and narrow path not as a painted line on a long, flat floor where we have the freedom to walk wherever we want but arbitrarily are confined, but instead as the only firm ground through a swamp where if we step off the path we get stuck and muddy and dirty and miserable. The Lord knows we have a limited understanding of an imperfect world filled with other mostly blind, mostly deaf people just as prone to horrible mistakes as we and He wants to help us to avoid getting stuck in the mud or drowned, or bitten by poisonous snakes or eaten by alligators which is why He has outlined the strait and narrow path for us to follow.