Making the Right Moves (Friday Devotional)

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

Over the last couple months, my 7-year-old son has gotten very interested in chess. Having been introduced to the game by a friend at school, he’s talked his grandparents into buying a board for their house and likes to periodically play with me on the iPad. If he’s not asking to play baseball outside, he’s wanting to play chess inside.

Enthusiasm aside, chess is a complicated game, and he’s still learning the rules. When we play, he’ll occasionally move his pawn one space diagonally—a legal maneuver when the pawn is attacking another piece, but not when that space is unoccupied. Similarly, he’ll sometimes forget that his king can only move one space at a time, mistaking it for the more wide-ranging queen. It falls to me to remind him that each piece has specific functions—they don’t get to do whatever you want.

Those moments in our chess games bring to mind one of Jesus’s concluding thoughts from the Sermon on the Mount, his discourse on discipleship. Having laid out all the demands of what it means to follow him—all of which essentially boil down to abandoning selfishness for a mindset of humble faithfulness to the kingdom of God—he lays out a simple truth: this is the only move you’ve got. Discipleship is a narrow gate, a restrictive path, but it’s the only one that leads to salvation. The Jesus way is the only way.

In a world where we’re accustomed to being overwhelmed with options, that can seem almost offensive to our sensibilities. Just one way? Shouldn’t I be able to make my own plan, come up with my own system, build my own path? A narrow gate feels downright exclusionary.

The truth is, you can follow the wisdom of the world and set your own agenda. Like my son at the chess board, you can play by your own rules. But doing so won’t lead you to victory, only disorder and defeat. Through Christ, and Christ alone, is salvation found.

Jesus told us that the road to life is narrow, and only a few find it. It’s tempting to go off book and seek your own way instead of following the one he has set out for us. But may you not confuse chaos with freedom. The Jesus way is the way to abundant life—so don’t make up your own path; instead, follow his.