The
Danger of Drifting
We must pay more
careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do
not drift away.
Hebrews 2:1
Larry and his son, Danny, were spending
the weekend Walleye fishing on Lake Erie. Danny’s 29 ft. ‘Shamrock
270 Open’ would handle 6-8 ft. waves, allowing them to fish when
everyone else had to head back to the marina.
Fifty minutes out of Port Clinton,
Larry got a hit. The fish was strong…taking line like the reel had
no drag. “Slow us down a little Danny,” Larry suggested, not
wanting to add stress on the line. As Danny throttled down Larry
began reeling. The fight was on!
While Larry battled the fish Danny
decided to cast off the other side of the boat, looking for his own
bite. Neither gave any thought to allowing the boat to drift, they’d
done it many times to land a fish.
Twenty-five adrenaline-filled minutes
latter, Danny netted his dad’s twenty-nine inch, seventeen pound,
trophy, “Niiiiice!”
In the habit of marking their catches
for future reference, Larry pulled up their position on his GPS.
“Crap!” His one word exclamation alerted Danny that something was
wrong. Turing the instrument so Danny could see the screen, Larry
said, “We've drifted into Canada.” The line of demarcation was
clearly south of their position. “We’ll have to take a picture
and release her right here.”
“I suppose,” Danny said,
disappointed that they would have to throw the magnificent fish back
because neither of them had obtained a Canadian fishing license.
†
Like the boat, we too can drift into
unintended territory if we fail to pay attention. Without an anchor
to hold us securely, we will find ourselves dealing with unpleasant
consequences.
Biblical wisdom encourages us to give
our full attention to the things that matter most, not just float
through life, drifting along like an un-anchored boat.
A cavalier approach to life and the
gospel will cause us to reap unintended consequences, and we may
never fulfill our purpose without constantly seeking God’s
direction for our life.
God offers us the chance to become
anchored to Jesus, and then pay careful attention to what we hear and
do so we do not drift away.
Prayer
“Lord, help me remain
rightly focused on Jesus, trusting that He is the Anchor that will
hold me where I need to be. Amen.”
No comments:
Post a Comment