In my early twenties, I went on a beach vacation in South Carolina.

I had one of those cheap inflatable rafts out in the ocean. Even though I was on the raft, I always kept relatively close to the shore, just beyond the breaking point of the waves. I never wanted to be out further than where I was able to stand with my head above the water.

My raft started losing air, at first I didn’t notice. When I finally noticed it, I didn’t think it was such a big deal, I looked for the nozzle so I could fill the raft with more air. It wasn’t working, the raft began to lose air rapidly. But while I was trying to manage the small issue with the raft, I neglected to sense the bigger issue I would soon have to deal with.

While all this was going on, I was slowly being pulled away from the shore. When it became obvious that I was way too far out, I began to panic. The raft quickly became a deterrent instead of a help. I couldn’t touch the ocean floor, I could now feel the power of the riptide, and I started swimming as hard as I could, leaving the deflated raft behind.

I was doing all I could physically, but despite my effort I was drifting further out. I was absolutely terrified. Fortunately I had heard in a situation like that to swim parallel to the shore until I was out of the riptide. I did that, and when I finally made it to shore I laid on the sand for a long time. I was physically exhausted.

That personal incident reminds me of this famous truth from Ravi Zaccharias

“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”

The word “sin” may be a mystery to you, maybe it’s been defined by people you don’t trust. In some cases, it’s been purposely redefined by popular opinion. In its totality, sin is more like an underlying condition with byproducts that we label sinful, and it’s a deeper problem than we can cover here. But for our purpose you could substitute bad choices, selfishness, or willful mistakes for the word sin and Mr. Zaccharias’ principle still holds true.

Like a riptide, sin (or our substitute words) will pull us away from where we want to be. It will keep us away from better things, and cause us to pay a price we never see coming.

Many people assume the Bible gives us guidelines to take away our freedom or fun. But actually God establishes boundaries for life to protect us from awful consequences. If you aren’t a believer, I imagine you can still see the wisdom in staying away from destructive behavior.

The good news is we aren’t defined by our destructive behaviors, our addictions, or our bad choices. Even though we have the propensity to go astray, God calls us His children. He offers love, mercy, and forgiveness to all of us.

It’s healthy to check your distance from the shore every once in a while.

Don’t let anything pull you away from all the good God has for you.

-Tom Wise