It’s crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift off.
Keeping a firm grip on anything takes a great deal of concentration. I watched a group of folk compete in a tug-0f-war contest Saturday evening at Sparrow Swamp Baptist Church. It was a hoot watching one team pull and the other fall on their faces. The ones that had a grip and planted their feet well – focused – won. They got a grip.
Drifting. I was watching one of the “beach cop” programs on television and heard a woman say that her child had disappeared. She said she was taking a picture of her other children and looked up and he was gone. It is amazing how it works at the beach. You can be in the water playing and the next thing you know if you are not watching end up further down the beach because of how the water is coming on shore. They found the boy a mile down the beach. He had drifted down the beach. Didn’t mean to!
Drifting. I understand that if you are using a compass in finding your way on a trip that a few degrees off one way or the other can make a major difference. Not paying attention and drifting off course one degree on a compass – not staying dead on the mark – cost you 92 feet per mile. It seems very insignificant at the start, but a mile away you are 92 feet off, and at ten miles you are three and a half football fields off the mark. You don’t mean to be off the mark. A little exactness at the beginning means a great deal of success later on.
Drifting. Dad’s flying techniques depended on following exact coordinates. He would have to file a flight plan with the appropriate body and then would have to follow that flight plan when he went up if he was going cross country. Keeping you safe in the air and making sure they could find you if something unforeseen went wrong was absolutely vital. Drift a little to the left or right and you are in a a fix. As a matter of fact you would have to factor in the way the wind was blowing so you could stay on course. You don’t mean to get off course – to drift. You really have to pay attention to what you are doing so you can be on target. Thank God for digital instruments and GPS now. It keeps you from drifting.
Drifting. I wish I could say that I don’t drift spiritually. If I said that I would lie. I have to work on focus a lot. Staying fresh and making certain that I am staying on target in my own spiritual disciplines. Salvation is way too precious to take lightly. It is Monday and there are a lot of things that I NEED to do – or at least I think are major focus areas of my life. However, focus on my spiritual walk with God is vital to staying connected to God. For me it is not a matter of HAVE TO but it is a joyful WANT TO kind of thing. The more I get to know HIM the more I want to be with HIM, hear His voice, and apply what He is teaching me as he journeys with me through this day.
I guess the first step to survival as a Christian “drift off” person is to admit that I have that kind of proclivity. Maybe I am not the only one with that kind of struggle. God is getting me back on course every day.
