Bounderies

I was struck today by the lines people draw for themselves. Specifically I mean where people place lines between good and bad. Many have mental lines when it comes to their weight. You have the weight you'd like to be, the weight you are, and the number that wakes you up and tells you it is time for a change. I have heard people say things like, "Even at my heaviest I've never weighed X amount". In their mind, that number crosses the line between a little heavy and "fat".
I started thinking about this while listening to an interview of Whitney Houston. She had a line in her mind that smoking a little weed wasn't too bad. Even when she started in with cocaine she was very specific to draw the line between the expensive cocaine she was using and street crack. She seemed perversely proud that she didn't drink while getting high, that she wasn't strung out on meth or heroine. She stayed while her husband called her names, cursed at her, and even spit on her, but was careful to let you know that she would not have stood for him hitting her. That was her line and he knew it. It just amazed me how clear her lines where and how very different they were from my own.
Houston seems to have lived a lot of her life standing as close to her lines as she possibly could. It brought to mind a sermon I heard Scott (our youth minister) give. He pointed out that it is a lot harder to fall off a cliff when you are standing a mile away from it than it is when you spend all your time on the edge.
I don't think I'm standing on any edges at the moment, but I do think I need to take a minute and take a few steps back on one or two things.