Fans of the Doctor Who television series are familiar with the TARDIS, the time machine and spacecraft that looks like a small blue telephone booth, but is bigger on the inside than it is from the outside. The main character enters through a small opening, only to find himself in a much bigger space on the other side of the doorway.

Doesn’t that description fit the small gate and narrow road that Jesus describes at the end of the Sermon on the Mount? “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:14)

We sometimes focus on the narrowness of the path, but we lose sight of what we gain on the other side.

The path is narrow because it requires radical repentance – true poorness of spirit as described earlier in the Beatitudes. We realize we are saved through Christ alone, and not by anything we do. We can never earn our salvation; we’re not good enough. And should we begin to think too well of ourselves, we should ask ourselves the question, “What should we be giving to the God who created us and gives us everything, who keeps us alive every second?” We owe him everything, but are any of us really giving him everything?

But once we enter that narrow gate of accepting our own spiritual poverty, that’s when we enter the spacious place God has created for us, even here on earth in the midst of our daily struggles. Timothy Keller calls this “the call to narrow spaciousness.”

“He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” (Psalm 18:19)

We can let go of this continual striving to be our ideal selves. Our identity is not caught up in what we achieve, or how we look, or how others see us. Our identity is in Christ alone. We are valuable, chosen, treasured, accepted, and fully known.

And if we who are so flawed are treasured and loved by God and redeemed by Jesus Christ, then we can be assured He will give us the grace we need to meet each day’s challenges. We can look beyond what we are facing each day to see Jesus beckoning us through it all.

Lord, you gave me a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip. I owe you everything, and it is when I center my life around You that I can see the glorious spaciousness of life. I give you all praise, as the God of my salvation.  Amen