FOCUS

A pilot explained, “One of the most difficult lessons to teach new pilots about landing on short, hazardous airstrips is to keep their eyes on the good part of the strip rather than on the hazard at the end of it. The natural tendency is to concentrate on the obstacle, the danger, the thing the pilot is trying to avoid. But experience teaches us that pilots who keep their eyes on the hazard will hit it dead centre.”

This makes me think of a key truth the Bible teaches us about how we are to live our Christian lives. Instead of concentrating on the sins and selfish things we want to avoid, we are told to focus on our relationship with Jesus—filling our minds with all that He is, all He has done, all He promises. Paul wrote: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (COLOSSIANS 3:2). We are to get rid of our old ways of thinking, which are all about me and what I want (VV.5-9) and instead to “put on” new ways of living that are all about knowing Jesus (VV.10-17).

That pilot summed up by saying that experienced pilots focus their attention only on the place they want the plane to land. When Jesus and His ways are the focus of our lives, He will direct how we live and how we grow. It’s only when we fill our minds with other stuff, or listen to all the things that want to distract our attention, that we end up way off course. Let’s keep reading the Bible and spending quality time with God, as first importance each day. Then we’ll have “our eyes on Jesus” (HEBREWS 12:2) and “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” (V.1).

Thinking it over . . .

What ‘hazards’ sometimes turn your attention away from Jesus? How can you more deliberately focus on Jesus when other things want to get in the way?