Faithful Focus
I used to live in a house backing onto a river. I had a kayak, and on Saturday mornings I would carry it down to the river and paddle downstream.
If you’re not very good at kayaking, which I wasn’t, it can be difficult to go in a straight line. A mixture of uneven strokes, a few gentle currents or gusts of wind can be enough to send you zig-zagging down the river. A way to improve is to fix your eyes ahead at a point in the distance and focus on that, rather than on the end of the boat.
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In a similar way, it can be easy to be knocked off a straight course in life by the problems that come at us, either because of our own weaknesses, or from the circumstances that come at us like currents of water in rivers or gusts of wind. Like kayaking, it can help to fix our eyes on a goal.
…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
Hebrews 12: 1b — 2a (NIVUK)
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
