"I don't really understand myself, for I want
to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate."
(Romans 7:15 NLT)
He had all the room he needed, but it wasn't
enough.
I lounged on my grandparents' wraparound porch
in Vance, SC, enjoying a summer afternoon and looking out over the open
fields and forests that surrounded their home. In his earlier years, my
grandfather had raised cows, but now he kept hogs. His hog pens
encompassed acres of land. Enough that any hog should have been
satisfied.
As I relaxed, I noticed one hog saunter to the
hog wire, insert his long snout under the bottom, raise it up, and
slither underneath. I hollered for my grandfather, who quickly corralled
the wayward animal. But I wondered why the hog wanted to get out. He had
more than enough space. What made him want to enter a field much smaller
than the one in which he was penned.
My grandfather penned his hogs for a reason.
Had he not, they would have wandered into fields where he had crops
planted or run into a nearby highway and risked death. But they didn't
appreciate his efforts. They wanted what they shouldn't have.
Paul had a similar problem. He didn't say
humans have an animal nature, but we do share at least one common
characteristic: we want what God says we can't have. Paul didn't
understand himself, just as I didn't understand the hog's actions.
I admit I've experienced Paul's dilemma. God
says, "Don't do _____," and that's exactly what I want to do. The hog
pen restricted, but the hog wanted the restriction removed.
God's boundaries have purpose. He doesn't give
the "Thou shalt not's" to make our lives miserable. Just as parents and
teachers have a purpose in setting boundaries for children--and just as
Pappy had a purpose in erecting a fence--so God has reasons for
restricting our behavior. Love is always His purpose for whatever pens
He pens us in.
God knows danger lurks beyond the fences He
erects. For the hog, it could have been death. For me, it might be sins
that would ruin my testimony and my effectiveness in God's service,
habits that would eat away at my health, or unwise decisions that would
take me down a path God doesn't want me to walk.
God pens us for a purpose. Respect the
boundaries and know He builds them out of love.
Martin Wiles
Hodges,
South Carolina, USA
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