"Boundary Lines"

[Read Psalm 16]

The word “sabotage” is defined as “deliberate damage to productive capacity.

Most of us consider sabotage to be an evil act.

When someone is sabotaged, someone is causing damage to that person’s productive capacity.

But what about self-sabotage?

If you type “self-sabotage” into a search engine, you will get more than 380,000 returns.

The internet is littered with offers from counselors who, for a fee, will help you identify and stop engaging in behaviors that are hurting you.

Self-sabotage will prevent you from getting ahead in your job.

It will keep you from having happy relationships.

Self-sabotage will short-circuit your efforts to reach long term goals.

It will keep you from maintaining a healthy self-esteem.

It will hinder your efforts in leading a productive life.

It is not unusual for people to stumble along in counter productive ways.

We self-sabotage ourselves when we do things without realizing that those things bring our forward progress to a halt.

Self-sabotage is behavior that reverses our good intentions.

The Apostle Paul did not call it self-sabotage but I think that is what he was talking about in Romans 7:15:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Paul is saying “I hate this thing and yet I do it anyway.”

An example might be Jesse James, the motorcycle guy on TV’s Monster Garage.

In 2005, he married actress Sandra Bullock.

Apparently, they had a fulfilling marriage.

But last year, when Sandra discovered that Jesse had been having several extramarital affairs, she filed for divorce.

When Jesse was interviewed on Nightline, he said he still loved Sandra.

When asked about his behavior, he admitted he had thrown away what he called his “pretty amazing life.”

He said, “When I was doing it, I knew it was horrible. It made me feel horrible. I knew I would get caught eventually. I think I wanted to get caught.”

Jesse said that the last thing he wanted to do was hurt Sandra.

But he could not give a coherent reason why he betrayed her.

Jesse James isn’t the only one who has done this.

We can all think of prominent figures in sports, politics, finance, the church and Hollywood who have done this.

Somehow we think that only the rich and the famous practice self-destructive behavior.

We don’t think this applies to us but it does.

We may not commit adultery but there are other small, self-defeating, self-destructive, self-sabotaging things that hurt us.

For example:

We may over-commit because we can’t say no.

We may enable abusive relationships.

We may fear succeeding and so we subconsciously booby trap the path to success.

Or we may have a fixed income but have wild un-fixed spending habits.

We may procrastinate and find it hurts us every time.

We may be spending time with the wrong friends.

The list could go on and on.

The foolish things we apparently feel compelled to inflict on ourselves from time to time is part of the riddle of what it means to be human.

There is something in men and women that has a perverse need to intrude on their lives when everything is going well.

This need generally introduces into one’s life a complicating component or an element of tumultuous change.

People have a tendency to drop one of those things into their lives precisely when things are going well, when things are on an even keel.

It’s as if something within people becomes uneasy when their lives finally become balanced and harmonious.

I. The Psalmist says “I’ve Been Blessed!”

In Psalm 16, the psalmist refers to such a situation.

Psalm 16:5, 6 = Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

The Psalmist is using vocabulary from the book of Joshua where boundary lines referred to the division of Canaan among the tribes of Israel.

Each tribe received a portion of the land.

Here in Psalm 16, however, the psalmist is using boundary lines metaphorically.

He is saying that his life is marked by good fortune because God is in it.

The Psalmist is saying “I’ve been blessed!”

Many people could say the same thing, “I’ve been blessed!”

But some people can not leave well enough alone.

The boundary lines may have fallen for them in pleasant places.

But sooner or later, some people grow dissatisfied with the status quo of the settled life.

They go looking for what’s beyond the boundary lines, deliberately throwing a wrench into their lives, committing self-sabotage.

I used to love playing tennis.

I took tennis as a Phy Ed course in college.

Some of my college friends and I would play tennis sometimes until 3 in the morning.

We would keep feeding quarters into the meter to keep the lights on.

For those of you who play tennis, would you rather play tennis on a court with a net and boundary lines or on a court without a net and without boundary lines.

A tennis court without a net and without boundaries would be easier.

You would never hit the ball into the net or hit the ball out of bounds.

But how would you score the game.

A net and boundary lines make the game of tennis more challenging and more fun.

You see, the net and the boundary lines inspire and challenge you to be accurate with your shots and score points.

Life with God is like a tennis game with a net and boundaries.

The writer of Psalm 16 says, The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

The Ten Commandments are like boundary lines:

God says:

You shall have no other gods before me.

            Remember the Sabbath Day.

            Honor your father and mother.

            Do not steal, kill or lie.

            You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

            Do not commit adultery.

            Do not covet your neighbor’s things.

These rules help us have the best possible life with God and with each other.

II. The Danger of Moving Beyond the Boundaries

There is a current trend where people are moving beyond the boundaries.

It’s very difficult to tell people that they should carry on with their lives without changing things.

It’s very difficult to convince people to remain in the same circumstances for a long time.

Yes, it is true, we also have a tendency to resist change.

When changes are made, you will always have someone say “We’ve never done it that way before.”

Yes, sometimes we only accept change when it is forced on us.

But that usually applies only to change that comes at us from outside of ourselves.

The internal urge to introduce change is another matter.

Consider this:

We change jobs,

we change our appearance,

we change our hobbies,

we change our values,

we change our spouses,

we change our houses,

we change our friends.

Some of these changes are good things,

            Some are neutral,

            Some are bad.

People usually resist change that is externally induced but are often receptive to change that is internally induced.

In other words, people like change when it’s their own idea.

C.S. Lewis points this out in his book The Screwtape Letters.

He wrote that book as a series of letters between a master devil named Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood, an apprentice devil.

Wormwood has been assigned to win the soul of a particular man, and Screwtape writes to advise him on how to do that.

Unfortunately for Wormwood, this man has become a Christian.

So Screwtape offers some advice on how to deal with Christians in general.

He said, “Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing.”

“The horror of the Same Old Thing is one of the most valuable passions we have produced in the human heart.”

“It has led to an endless source of heresies in religion.”

“It has led to foolish counsel.”

“It has led to infidelity in marriage.”

Screwtape explains that God has balanced the love of change in humans with a love of permanence.

The advice for Wormwood is to take the love of change in humans and twist it into a demand for absolute novelty.

Screwtape tells Wormwood: “The pleasure of novelty is by its very nature more subject than any other pleasure to the law of diminishing returns.”

We as human beings desire both newness and permanence.

We want some things to remain the same but in the course of our lives we also want change.

As followers of Christ, we should examine any urge to introduce serious change into our lives.

It’s true, God may want to move us in a new direction.

So we have to conclude that some of the urges we feel may actually be the call of God on our lives.

And yet other urges to make a change may simply be a desire for something new.

This desire for something new may be sin induced.

III. Crossing the Boundaries Will Hurt Someone

Crossing boundaries will hurt someone, even if it doesn’t hurt you.

Upsetting the fruit basket of our lives is sometimes painful for us, but it’s always painful for somebody.

If we are the one seeking change, then the excitement of the new thing may cover some of the pain for us personally.

But we cannot overlook that others who have counted on us will be thrown off balance or even hurt by changes that we have made.

There is interconnectedness in life and we can’t escape it.

Therefore, we should examine seriously and prayerfully every urge to rip apart something significant in our lives and start over.

If God is calling us, we should listen.

But if the longing to change is simply change for its own sake, we need to count the cost and reconsider

Sometimes God is involved and sometimes He is not.

That’s why we need to pray it through.

Talk to some Godly people who are both spiritually sensitive and spiritually sensible.

Talk to people who have made good choices and then talk to people who have made bad choices.

Then decide how you want to live your life.

Psalm 16 reminds us that stability, joy and security are the gifts we receive when we live within God’s boundaries.

The boundaries God has set for us are good.

They are for our protection.

Doesn’t it seem reasonable that whatever seems to block our way may also provide for our protection?

It may be that some things in life that frustrate and prevent us from fulfilling our dreams are actually placed there by God for a reason.

Could it be that some mountains are not meant to be moved?

Could it be that some doors are not meant to be pried open?

We may feel that some boundaries hem us in.

But perhaps, they are there to help us stay on the path to God’s perfect will for our lives.