I attended church with my family down in Houston on Dec. 28, and during the service, an outline started unfolding in my mind’s eye along with some verses and pictures from my memory. It had nothing really to do with the sermon topic, but I jotted down some notes and looked up a few verses that had come to mind.

The gist of my sermon, for lack of a better term, is that despite the athletic prowess and sheer guts of some human beings, we are utterly incapable of crossing the gap that separates our sin … minor though it may seem in comparison to others … from a holy God.

Out of curiosity, I looked up a few stats & records. Pikes Peak is more than 14K ft above sea level. The Grand Canyon is 10-18 miles wide. The world’s long jump record is about the width of a two-lane highway. The standing long jump record is approximately 12ft (approx one lane of the highway).

I began thinking of that scene in Grease 2 where Michael attempts to jump the gully, which reminded me of Evel Knievel, so I did a little research on him. Before each of his stunts, he used to pray: “God, take care of me. Here I come…” not knowing whether he’d survive.

Passages of scripture came to mind like Romans 6:21-23, which says plain & simply that our sin deserves death. Philippians 3:4-9 where Paul recites his very impressive resume and yet calls the accolades akin to a pooper scooper when compared to Christ. Then there’s Ecclesiastes 7:20-22, which reminds us that no one is perfect … no one.

You see? It doesn’t matter if we’re being asked to long-jump a four-lane highway or the Grand Canyon! We … can’t … do … it. Period. My supposedly “little” sins keep me on one side of the canyon just as helplessly as another person’s “gigantic” sins.

Then I thought of Indiana Jones and the bridge of faith that he had to cross while searching for the holy grail. Despite our most cunning, clever, sugar-coated efforts, we simply can’t jump far enough to overcome our sin and reach God, but God provides a bridge to cross the chasm that separates us through Christ.

This word is on my heart to share … I feel like the outline & illustrations came to my mind for a reason. I’m just not sure what the venue is supposed to be. Is it here, on this blog that only a handful of people read? Is it in front of the congregation? Is it with my small group? I don’t know yet.