heading for the ditches...

There is an odd and curious driving effect that happens when we take our eyes off the road immediately in front of us. It appears that whatever we look at we drive toward. I am sure this is some kind of mystical physical law of the universe. Actually I have even noticed that you don’t necessarily have to be driving a car for this to happen. I have experienced this phenomenon while riding my bike. I have caught myself looking a little too long at something along the road and we begin to converge. I haven’t quite put myself in the ditch yet but I have come very close. I know at this point you may be wondering to yourself…”where’s he going with this?”, right? I am getting ready to draw a tremendous analogy here. In our daily lives the consequences of taking our eyes off the road we are on can have just as a devastating outcome. A brief period of inattention and looking at something peripheral to our chosen path can have a life altering and disastrous effect on us and others. We can lose focus in the blink of an eye. We willingly steer our lives right into the ditch and wonder how that happened. Simply put we go toward that thing we are looking at. Satan knows that so well and appeals to our poor driving skills and our propensity to end up in ditches. In Hebrews 12:2, it says,

“Let us fix our eyes on the Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I have also heard this referred to as “keeping your eyes on the prize”. I am not sure I actually like that one as it sounds too much like the proverbial carrot on the end of a stick. I don’t like to visualize the concept of driving well and working hard not to drift across the line for a reward at the end that I’ll never really receive. Although I do believe and understand there is a reward called heaven, I think the incentive for me personally is just the powerful memory of a few bad wrecks I’ve both had and caused. Sadly, there are some people who really like pain or have short memories for bad stuff and this wrecking doesn’t bother them much. When we start to veer and move toward the thing leading our eye away, God gives us a chance to correct before it’s too late. In that correction there is grace and in that grace there is redemption. God knows I am a bad driver and He knows I’m going to get distracted and look at stuff too long. I just imagine Him wincing, watching me and saying, “ooooh, this is gonna be bad…” It’s just like He is watching this big giant cosmic NASCAR race and patiently waiting for the predictable wreck to come. Except for the big wipeouts everything else just moves along uneventfully seemingly without notice. Days and years go by and we settle into a routine. As the saying goes, we fall asleep at the wheel. We become numb and hypnotized by the road because it’s straight and boring and we have everything we think we want. Our faith has gone to bed and we become adverse to risk. We become oblivious to the danger signs, road hazards and become casual and reckless and start to look around at things along the road. And then…we hold that gaze just a little too long…we take our eyes off the prize...yeah, the grass looks greener…in the ditch…yeah, this one’s really gonna hurt…...bad.