Lowering the Goal

by Steve Cawthon
as originally published in the January 24, 1999, edition of Life Lines

     As I write this article, I can see Greg, my neighbor's 12-year-old son, playing basketball on our goal in the front drive. It's the kind you can raise and lower to suit the height of the players. We got it a few years ago when my son was much shorter. He and Greg have grown up under that goal.

     But I notice that Greg has lowered the goal from the standard height so he can "slam it" without his feet leaving the ground. He keeps dribbling around and then easily dunks the ball: He's 40 for 40! Trouble is, when he goes to the Youth Center Saturday for the real game, the goal will be back at the standard height. All of his "practicing" will be useless.

     It occurs to me that it's a lot easier to lower our standards than to improve our game. And it's also a lot less profitable. Paul wrote of some that "commend themselves; but they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding" (2 Cor. 10:12). How often do we feign improvement by simply using a lower standard? "I may not study the Bible much, but I know a lot more than Joe Dummy." "My clothes may not be the mot modest, but they're sure more discreet than Cher's or Madonna's." "I may not be the world's most saintly person, but at least my morals are better than that alley cat's."

     The problem with practicing with a "low goal" is the big game Saturday. The referee doesn't care how many times you slammed the ball into a five-foot high rim. It's back to regulation. And the big day is coming for all of us. The day described by the apostle John in Revelation 20. "And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and the books were opened; and another book was opened which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works" (v. 12). We will be judged by the Lord's books - the Standard. Jesus said, "He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my sayings hath one that judgeth him; the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day" (John 12:48). It won't matter how we compare with others. It won't matter how well we pretended we were doing.

     "And be not fashioned according to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:2). Christians, it's not enough to simply stay a step above the behavior of the world. If the world lies 20 times a day, we only lie 10. If the world gets drunk twice a week, we only get drunk once. If the world curses every breath, we every other. The world is irrelevant to us. We are seeking to do the will of God. His will is our only standard.

-  Steve Cawthon (condensed)