How far is too far?   This is an extremely popular question and most of us have either heard it or asked it at some point in our lives.  The premise is that we know that sex before marriage is wrong, so we want to push all the buttons we can while remaining ‘technical virgins.’  In other words, we want to do ‘everything but.’

There’s a problem here.  Obviously our hearts aren’t in the right place.

I personally struggled with this question in high school, and in grade 10 God gave me a mental picture that provided me with a new perspective.  Since then I have developed this thought further, and invite you to imagine a scenario with me.

It’s night time, and you are standing on the street in a rough area of town.  You look to you left and see a dark alley, where there is an creepy looking man staring back at you.  You look to your right, and see a brightly lit up store with a friendly clerk inside.  Which way are you going to go?

This seems like a stupid question; of course you’ll run towards the light and get as far away as possible from the dark alley. So now let’s rephrase the question “how far is too far?” If Satan is on your left and God on your right, would we ask, “how far can I get towards Satan before he can hurt me?” This would be the same as asking “how far into that dark alley can I go before I’m in serious danger?” This is the wrong question. The question should be: how fast can I get away from the dark alley and what can I do stay close to the light?  In other words, we shouldn’t be asking “how far is too far” but asking how can we honour, respect, and encourage others’ purity and not tempt each other to sin?

Over the next few weeks I will be addressing this question and talking about things we can do to stay pure and help others stay pure as well.  I look forward to starting this journey with you! But today I’d like to ask you: are you facing an alley?