Last week at Fellowship Church, we finished a series called “The Worst Story ever told” from Judges 19-21.   Last Sunday, we focused on standards and how we need self imposed boundaries of people, ideas, or organizations that restrict us with the purpose of personal growth or protection.

I thought I’d leave a thought from Scripture on martyholman.com as an addendum to the message on Sunday.

I said that we not only need boundaries in our lives for the aforementioned reasons, but we are the ones who decide either to impose boundaries on ourselves or to ignore the boundaries around us.  Ultimately we need boundaries and disciplines to be successful in this life (understanding that the word ‘successful’ is open for definition).

And the truth is, the higher our standaries or boundaries, the better we can become.  For instance, if I have standards in my eating habits, I have a better chance of staying healthy and feeling better than if I eat whatever I feel like eating, whether that is greasy fries (which I love) from McDonalds or a huge Homewrecker from Moes.

So what’s the top standard or measure I could subscribe to?  Perfection, I would guess.

I believe that the only perfect person that has ever walked the earth is Jesus.  So would we be successful if we followed Him and made Him our standard in deed and in motivation?  In deed, doing the things He asked us to do and did Himself, and in motivation, doing those things for the reasons He did them.

The author of the Biblical book of Hebrews seems to think so.  In chapter 11 they write about many of the great God followers in Old Testament times, a chapter which has been dubbed “the Hall of Faith.”  then in chapter 12, it’s followed up this way:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The writer uses an athletic analogy to call for raising the standard in our lives.  There are going to be so much stuff that comes in and out of our lives, but anything that hinders our calling, sin or otherwise, shed it!  Then keep going!  And my favorite part is this- all the while, keep your eyes on Jesus.

There are a lot of boundaries you could have, whether its food, material possessions, relationship boundaries or financial, but the one that is the highest standard is that of perfection-

Jesus Christ.

“So it finally happened. I got caught.  I had expected it for some time, living in the shadows, and hoping no one would see me doing it.  But alas my time had come, and I had no one to blame but myself.  I made the bad decisions. I lived as I pleased.  And now I would pay dearly.”

In August of 1997, I was a college graduate that loved to have fun and who had just gradauated from a college where I could not make my own decisions.  This did not make for a very good combination.  I tried to figure out what I wanted to do as far as work was concerned, but it wasn’t easy.  I wanted to be some sort of half pastor/ radio DJ/ politician. Like a mix between Rush Limbaugh (he was “in” back then) and Billy Graham.  Instead I chose to be a high school history teacher in Atlanta.  Pretty cool, huh?  I thought so.  I remember loading up my new car – a 1993 cherry red Nissan Sentra, and began the drive from Tucson, Arizona where my parents lived, to Hotlanta.

After leaving Tucson at 9:00 pm on Friday, August 1st, I finally arrived in the “land of sweet tea” on Sunday, August 3rd at around noon.  The friends I was temporarily living with in Atlanta had called me and told me they would be away.  They left a key underneath the flowerpot or something, and I could make myself at home.  They were at some camp with kids and I was in Atlanta until next Friday by myself.  Cable television kept me busy until around 5:00 pm until I got bored and decided to drive around the suburb I would be living and explore.  On that drive, I discovered Chick Fil-A. But it wasn’t open on Sunday!

Then I received a call from my friend Ruben.  Ruben was a crazy man who loved to stretch me in all things adventure and this conversation would be no exception.  He confessed he was in Massachusetts, having a great time,and since I had a week before I had any responsibilities, I should come up.

Now remember I had just driven 35 hours or so to get to Atlanta and had only arrived hours before. But something about Ruben the adventurer always made me say yes.  So around 7:30 pm, my car hit the highway again to drive to the northeast, a place I had only visited once before.
I share this story with you because this was the way I lived my life.  Adventure and fun drove my decisions.  No one dared to tell me what to do any longer.  I could drive to Massachusetts if I wanted to drive to Massachusetts on an hour’s notice. I could go to bed when I wanted to go to bed. (I know that is a funny thing to say for a 21 year old, but the college I attended had a bedtime of 11:00 pm)  And I would from now on make my own decisions.  I was free!  You might even say I was my own king.

By October of the same year, I had hit my stride.  My students loved me.  I taught not only in school, but also a “singles class” at the church I attended.  Don’t worry, I was not teaching people how to be single, I was teaching life, a subject I was certainly qualified to teach, right?.  In short, I was on fire.

The only thing I didn’t have was money, but that would come sooner or later, now I was serving and having a blast with a bunch of people around me – peers, parents, students, and whoever else wanted to come around.  I remember walking from one class to another one day telling myself how invincible I was becoming. Life couldn’t get any better than this!

But it could get worse.

Thinking your invincible is a little like thinking you’re the best at the game of basketball because you hit a shot from 3 point land while you’re shooting around by yourself.  No one can prove you’re not the best, and of course that’s where the burden of proof lies.  So when you hit the shot, you smile smugly to yourself about how good you are,and how the Celtics deserve to have a guy like you on their team.  Basically what I’m saying is, it’s ludicrous to think that way…

This was part of an rough draft introduction to a project I recently started working on entitled,”The Worst Story ever told and a few really bad ones too.”