Lowering the Goal!

When my brother, Joey, and I were teenage boys, we lived in Memphis, Tennessee. We are both about 5' 10'' tall. What you might not ever guess about us is that both of us had absolutely amazing slam dunking skills way back in the day. Michael Jordan, Shaq, and Dr J had absolutely nothing on us. I mean we could both slam dunk two-handing, behind our backs, and do all kinds of trick shots. I know...I know...you are thinking to yourself how incredibly amazing we must have been, and you would be right! We were simply incredible, especially for guys only 5'10'' tall. It is true! 
 
Now here is the thing about all of this that you probably do not know. At our house in Memphis we had a small concrete pad behind our house (the court) and a basketball hoop. The basketball hoop...well....it was actually only 8 feet high on the back of our house. All of us know that an actual basketball hoop is supposed to be set at 10 feet. That is the height that all the High School, College, and Pro teams use as the standard. The reason we were such good basketball slam dunking champions is not because we really had the skills like MJ or Dr J. We were good slam dunking players because we lowered the goal. It is a whole lot easier to slam dunk and appear to be great on an 8 foot goal. 
 
The truth is that this is exactly the way many people look at their Christian lives. What they do is rather than using Jesus as the standard for how to live their lives, they find some backslidden, worldly, half out of their mind church member to compare their lives to. They compare themselves to these people and come to the conclusion that they are just fine with the Lord because at least they are not like Bro. Arrogant or Sister Gossip. I guess it is kind of like thinking you are a real NBA player because you can slam dunk on an 8 foot goal.
 
Stop lowering your goal! Jesus is our goal. He is our standard. Compare your life to that of Jesus and then adjust your life, not your goal, accordingly! 

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