Thursday, April 19, 2018

 

It was going to be a night of fun and now she is pregnant. He was just hanging with the boys and now he is in jail. At the altar they said, “until death do us part” now they are getting a divorce. They got married, started a family and now everyone has gone their own way. They invested their savings in a business now they are filing for bankruptcy. In each of these scenarios, everyone began with the right idea in mind but somewhere along the way they became unanchored or perhaps were not anchored to begin with. Therefore the currents of this world carried them away.

 

It always begins with a thought. The thought then becomes a one-time action and over time the one-time action becomes everyday behavior. The author of the Book of Hebrews writes to a group of Jesus- following, God-fearing people. He tells them that they must pay careful attention to the things they had learned otherwise they would be in danger of drifting off course.

 

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. – Hebrews 2:1 NIV

 

The ability to remain anchored in any area of our lives is not dependent on how much we know or how committed we are. All one needs to do is to look at Solomon, with all of his experience, wisdom, and commitment to God, he drifted so far that eventually he lost his kingdom. Many theologians speculate that he may have lost everything. In order to stay anchored, it is necessary to keep a firm grip on what we have learned and then we must commit to obeying God when we like it and when we do not. When we agree and when we do not, and when we understand and when we do not understand.

 

One of the keys to guarding ourselves against drifting is to have a referee, an umpire, someone we trust and respect because of their experience and commitment to doing what is right. Typically this would mean finding someone older than you, someone who has lived long enough that they can give counsel and advice. Our tendency however, will be to pick someone who is a contemporary or who is experiencing the same issues as we are. For example, if you are a young girl going through a divorce, do not pick someone who got divorced pick someone who has been married for thirty or forty years. If you are having financial problems, do not pick someone who declared bankruptcy, pick someone who is financially successful and has never declared bankruptcy. It is not that we cannot learn from other people’s mistakes, it’s just that we can learn so much more from those who avoided making mistakes. Paying close attention goes hand in hand with having someone to help keep us anchored.