day no. 14,248: drift and blur

Hebrews 2:1
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

On our most recent vacation to Custer, I found myself screaming, "Atticus!!!" as I watched him and his brother, Finneas, slowly drive away on an electronic, John Deere-themed gator. We were playing outside and I had instructed everyone to stay within hearing distance as my parent's home is located on a chunk of land in the Black Hills Forest of South Dakota. Atticus and Finneas watched their sisters, Penelope and Laurelai, disappear down the long, gravel driveway clinging to the back of their Papa Tony on his 4-wheeler. So they pirated the electronic gator and gave chase. What of Atticus' eight year old knees were not able to contort into his seat, he splayed out the driver's side "door" as the 12-volt gator struggled down the sloped driveway. As I began to suspect that their difficult journey down the driveway would be matched only by their trek back uphill, I shouted, "Atticus!" The electronic, high-pitched hum of the gator matched by his focused pursuit of his Papa Tony's 4-wheeler drown out my plea. While progress was slow-going, the distance between us was growing and the volume of my intercession had reached its maximum capacity as I screamed, "Atticus!!!" to no avail. They were drifting away. I had shouted as loudly as I could. And they had not paid attention. They had invested their focus on other things. And the road back was going to be difficult, if not impossible.

Hebrews, chapter 1, informs us that God has never spoken more clearly or loudly as He has by sending the Word to become flesh in the form of the man, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a shout from Heaven, a final Word, authoritative, clear and loud. We must pay MUCH closer attention to what we have already heard, lest we drift away from it. Our focus needs more focus. When we get distracted, we drift. We are always focused... on something. And whatever is not in focus, is blurry and bound to be assumed, forgotten or ignored. 

We MUST focus more on Jesus. We MUST pay the costs associated with focusing on Him. Everything costs something and paying your attention to Jesus will take it from other things. You are either drifting away from Jesus by focusing on other things or drifting away from other things by focusing on Jesus.