There are…
family lines; guidelines; tree lines; sidelines; battle lines; scrimmage lines; starting line; state line; county line; coastline; “a fine line;” body lines; production line; next in line; lifeline; bread lines; rail line; clothes line; brake line; gas line; tranny line; goal line; baseline; “a thin blue line;” off line; “a line of questioning;” a line of work; behind the line; enemy lines; foul line; first base line; third base line; air line; bus line; fall in line; a line in the sand;
in the line of duty;
toe the line;
a story line;
and, ‘somewhere along those lines…’ we may “cross the line,” or even… “sign on the dotted line.”
In an interview with David Letterman, the great George Foreman mentions a dotted line. When asked if he wanted to fight Mike Tyson, he said, “I didn’t come back to fight anyone in particular, I came back to win the heavyweight championship of the world. Don King had a contract, a five million dollar contract… but I was more afraid to sign on the dotted line with Don King than to fight Mike Tyson.”
In your travels you may even come across… a plumb line.
You may be thinking, “What is a plumb line?”
Let’s start with a standard online definition.
From the online Oxford Dictionary: “a line with a plumb attached to it, used for finding depth of water or determining vertical on an upright surface.”
My mind would ask, “A plumb… like the fruit?”
You might say, “No, it’s a tool a carpenter might use, it’s called a plumb-bob.”
My mind would then ask, “The carpenter’s name is Bob?” And you would then stop talking to me.
Do you know how you learn? I mean… really know.
I learn the best when someone who is teaching me shows me how to do a task, incorporates an explanation of it, and they allow me to mimic the task as close as possible, as they supervise and correct me, or tells me, “Yes, that is the way.”
Here is an example, from an expert, that shows and says, exactly what a plumb line is, and how it is used.
We tend to feel constricted by lines. Think about… fence lines.
Research resource found at: https://www.asla.org/awards/2006/studentawards/282.html
(Quoted)Research
“A simple study was conducted to discover the effects of a fence around a playground and the consequent impact it would have on preschool children.Â
Teachers were to take their children to a local playground in which there was no fence during their normal recess hour. The kids were to play as normal.Â
The same group was to be taken to a comparable playground in which there was a defined border designated by a fence.
In the first scenario, the children remained huddled around their teacher, fearful of leaving out of her sight.Â
The later scenario exhibited drastically different results, with the children feeling free to explore within the given boundaries.
The overwhelming conclusion was that with a given limitation, children felt safer to explore a playground. Without a fence, the children were not able to see a given boundary or limit and thus were more reluctant to leave the caregiver.Â
With a boundary, in this case the fence[line], the children felt at ease to explore the space. They were able to separate from the caregiver and continue to develop in their sense of self while still recognizing that they were in a safe environment within the limits of the fence.”
Our perspective of lines is usually one of confinement, restriction, or otherwise seeming to hinder us. I would like to propose a new way of thinking about lines, and that is one of… freedom.
Think about it. All the lines I mentioned, and any I didn’t, all have one thing in common.
The one thing is… the fact of their purpose… they allow movement.
Anything that is supposed to use those lines is free to do so. Think about it. You are, “free to ride the rails,” “free to run to first base or even to steal third,” as long as you are adhering to, and are not ‘out of line’ with, what those lines can convey, carry, or move along.
Think about it. Can you run to first base wearing hockey skates? Would you try to score a touch down in a football game wearing only a soccer uniform?
Would you be comfortable strolling down the red carpet entering a black tie affair wearing only a mawashi?
Or… what happens to communications when the communication lines are cut, downed by a storm, or out of service? Think about it.
A plumb line, a fence line, or a set of guidelines, not only teach us what the ‘straight line’ is BUT it also shows us how ‘out of line’ we are in reference to that ‘straight line.’
With a wall, a foundation, and especially a door frame… the plumb-bob clearly states where the ‘straight line’ is versus where we may think, or understand it to be.
If you noticed in the video, Bob Vila uses a nail, pounded into the wood, to hang the plumb-bob from it to get his true vertical line for his wall.
That is why we are reluctant to turn to Jesus. We are very aware of how far away from a true vertical line we are, and we do not understand His Word well enough to know, “all those rules, all those guidelines,” are really meant and designed to give us the opportunity to freely explore all of the freedoms He has designed for us within the outline of our personal life… instead of being free to move about we are like those preschoolers left out in the open… clinging to their teacher, fearfully… as adults we cling to our very limited, very personal understandings, and are unable to truly move freely along any lines.
So I ask again, “Where do you cross, draw or move your lines?”
Oh, I had so much fun reading this one!
Thanks Dave, good writing!!!
Thanks. How did you like the ending?