Reward Found Through the Narrow Way

Reward Found Through the Narrow Way

By Renee G.

Standing straight at the end of the field perfect in dimension resides an object necessary in winning the game of football.  The opening of the goal rests in a welcome stance ten feet off the ground, almost twenty-four feet across, with the upper posts protruding at least twenty feet into the air.  A minuet shift in any direction and the pigskin veers outside of the goal denying the player points.  The only guarantee to hitting the mark is straight down the middle, a wide goal but narrow way.

A scene from one of my favorite movies paints this very image.  In the film “Facing the Giants”, David, the lead kicker is struggling with his ability to hit the necessary mark since his only kicking experience has been as a soccer player, not football.  Time after time the ball breaks to wide left or wide right, but never down the middle.  Frustrated with his failure, David’s coach encourages him and simply states,

“‘Scripture says wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many that be there find it. Now to us; that’s wide left, and wide right. But narrow is the gate and straight is the way that leads to life, and few that be there find it. Anybody can kick it wide left and wide right. My momma can kick it wide left and wide right. But that ain’t gonna get you home. It don’t have to look great. It don’t have to look smooth. It can look like a dying duck. But the ball has got to go through the middle. Now David, you gonna have to choose the narrow way. Cause that’s the only path where you gonna get your reward.

This scene is a metaphor for life.  Think about it.  There are a wide variety of choices (a broad way) when it comes to claiming to know or at least have an idea of how to get to heaven.  But just like David.  When he has too much variety in his kick, it leads to destruction.  Yet, when David focuses in on straight and narrow he finds the way that leads to life where the goal (the reward) resides.

One idea the coach emphasizes to David is that it doesn’t matter what the ball looks like going through the goal, it’s going in through the narrow way that scores the points. God knows that our lives are messy, ugly, and broken just like the football can be messy, ugly, and at times broken.  He just wants us to aim for the narrow way and not worry so much about how it looks entering in.  You see, Jesus is the narrow way.   He paved the way for our salvation.   The ironic thing is that it is so simple yet we want to complicate it.  We want choices just like the world gives us.  If we don’t like the first choice, we will move on to the second, or third, or fourth, but when given just one choice we wonder why?  But there truly is only one way and that is when we repent and turn from our sins (no matter how ugly), ask for His forgiveness, and believe that we are forgiven.

We are called to “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14).