One cold wintry day three boys were walking home from school. They came to a large open field that they would cut through as a short cut to get home. The snow was about one foot deep across the large field.
"I bet I can walk a straighter line than you two," said one of the boys. "No way," replied another. "You guys are on!" said the third. "Are there any rules?" asked the youngest. "The only rule is that none of us can look back" replied the oldest.
Then they all proceeded across the field trudging through the snow. Each one thought to himself, "This is easy, I will walk a perfectly straight line and beat them."
When the first boy reached the end of the field he confidently smiled and turned around to view his straight line. But his smile turned into a frown. To his dismay his path was extremely curvey and he couldn't understand it.
The second boy, upon his conclusion, had a similiar result. He turned around to see that he had zigged and zagged all through his trek. "That's not straight at all!" he said perplexingly.
When the third boy finished, he turned also, but he, however, was not disappointed. He was the obvious winner of the challenge. His path was perfectly straight.
The losing boys asked the victor how he did it. "It was simple," replied the winner, "Do you see this big oak tree here?" as he pointed to it. "I just stared at it the whole way and didn't go to the right or left of it, I just focused on the tree."
COMMENTARY
While this is a nice children’s story there are some valuable lessons that can be drawn from it. One obvious lesson is how we can walk on the narrow path if we have our focus where it should be. The other two boys show how many people may confidently think they are in the right path and walking on the straight and narrow, when in reality, they are not.
When I first heard this story I remember trying to visualize what my path would look like if I could see it spiritually. There would have been many curves and zigzags off the path, many times that I was stagnant and unmoving for long periods.There also were times when I would have fallen into a ditch and only God’s hand could get me out and yes, there would also be times when I went backwards.
The solution which we can draw from this story is that if we desire to walk in and stay on the narrow path that leads to life, then we need to have our focus on something all along the way.
The definition of the word focus is this: a central point of attention, attraction or activity. Therefore we need to find out what our central point of attention should be on, a final goal or prize that we should always be moving towards. We must also have within us an attraction that pulls us towards this goal. And lastly the activities of our life should also be always moving towards this central point.
Our central point of attention should be on Jesus Christ! “To the two questions", said T.W. Mann, “What is it that God has given to mankind? and, What is it that God requires in return? The New Testament returns one answer, the life of Christ.” It is somewhat obvious to say that our focus should always be on Christ. After all, we who are called Christians are to be Christ-like, and if you have not studied the life and teachings of Jesus, how can you emulate Him? We have all heard it said, “What would Jesus do?” Well, if you don’t know Jesus you will have a difficult time in ever being able to answer that question with certainty.
“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ…” ~ Philippians 3:7-10
Next there needs to be an attraction to our central point. This attraction that pulls us, sometimes inexplicably or unknowingly, is love. There is no greater power than love! It was love for God, that the boy David risked his life to battle the giant Goliath, that Abraham almost sacrificed his beloved son Isaac and that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would rather risk being burnt to death than serve or worship false gods. With love for God a man may be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause. Loving Christ is what enables the pilgrim to soldier on regardless of what comes his way or tries to take him off course.
Finally, we need for the activities of our life to be always moving to this central point. The thoughts we think, the places we go, the things we do, and what we give our attention to, should all be such that they are keeping us on the path that moves us closer to our goal. I must stress here that our thoughts are the most important of all the activities. ““Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.” ~ Soren Kierkegaard
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." ~ Colossians 3:1,2
Please note that this doesn’t mean that you are to become so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly use. God has not called us to lead a monastic, ascetic and lonely life. He desires for us to have a life of joy and to be cheerful, regardless of what happens in this world, for He has overcome the world!
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace”
APPLICATION
Try now to visualize your own path behind you. Take your time. Imagine that you have the ability to see your path in the spirit throughout your journey thus far. Have you kept a true, straight-forward course on the narrow path that leads to life? Are you spiritually where you should be now? If not, why? If you know the answer, do something about it! If you don’t know the answer, pray that the Lord will, as a loving shepherd, put his staff around your neck and pull you back where you belong.
Keep your eyes focused on the prize, Jesus Christ. When something is causing you to stray off the path, hastily remove it from your life. Let it be to you as one that may awaken in a jungle to find a snake coiled around his arm. He would do all in his power to quickly remove this dangerous threat to his well-being. And so should you use all your power to quickly remove any dangerous threat to your spiritual well-being. Too many Christians allow things in their lives in which they know are hindrances to their spiritual growth, but choose to nonchalantly say, “I’ll get to that eventually.”
Focus on the positives, not the negatives. "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” ~ Philippians 4:8
When you focus on the negatives you will be drawn off the right path.
Learn from your past, but put it behind you and march on toward the goal you are focusing on. Kierkegaad, in agreement wrote “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 3:13,14
Do what you must to keep yourself focused throughout the day. On the doorposts of every observant-Jewish home is a Mezuzah. The Mezuzah is a reminder to them about the oneness of God. They are reminded of this everytime they pass by the door. Muslims are known for stopping everything when it is time for their daily prayers. Buddhist monks will shave their heads and beard to show their commitment to a holy life. The point I am trying to make is find ways throughout your day to help keep your focus where it should be. You may, for example set aside a specific time for prayer two to three times per day. You could carry a rock in your pocket that has the words Jesus Christ on it. The list could go on, but find what works for you.
Make time for solitude in your life. Jesus very often would go to an isolated place to pray. If He needed that, how much more you and me! We often need these peaceful times alone to help us to see where our focus has been vs. where it should be. The busy-ness of life can take away your focus if you let it. There are many that become too absorbed in their work, or with wholesome activities and hobbies. They may think there is nothing wrong with them spending so much time in these areas. But we must remember that we are not to let anything or anyone come before our Lord. It is in times of solitude, prayer and meditation, that we may see more clearly the status of our journey.
“The Noise of the moment scoffs at the music of eternity” ~ Unknown
I am going to conclude this with some verses from fourth chapter in the Book of Proverbs . I would recommend you read this whole chapter also. It is absolutely great in giving us guidance regarding how we are to walk in, and stay in, the path of righteousness.
“Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve from the right or the left; keep your feet from evil.” ~ Proverbs 4:25-27
J.Lawrence Finley
"I bet I can walk a straighter line than you two," said one of the boys. "No way," replied another. "You guys are on!" said the third. "Are there any rules?" asked the youngest. "The only rule is that none of us can look back" replied the oldest.
Then they all proceeded across the field trudging through the snow. Each one thought to himself, "This is easy, I will walk a perfectly straight line and beat them."
When the first boy reached the end of the field he confidently smiled and turned around to view his straight line. But his smile turned into a frown. To his dismay his path was extremely curvey and he couldn't understand it.
The second boy, upon his conclusion, had a similiar result. He turned around to see that he had zigged and zagged all through his trek. "That's not straight at all!" he said perplexingly.
When the third boy finished, he turned also, but he, however, was not disappointed. He was the obvious winner of the challenge. His path was perfectly straight.
The losing boys asked the victor how he did it. "It was simple," replied the winner, "Do you see this big oak tree here?" as he pointed to it. "I just stared at it the whole way and didn't go to the right or left of it, I just focused on the tree."
COMMENTARY
While this is a nice children’s story there are some valuable lessons that can be drawn from it. One obvious lesson is how we can walk on the narrow path if we have our focus where it should be. The other two boys show how many people may confidently think they are in the right path and walking on the straight and narrow, when in reality, they are not.
When I first heard this story I remember trying to visualize what my path would look like if I could see it spiritually. There would have been many curves and zigzags off the path, many times that I was stagnant and unmoving for long periods.There also were times when I would have fallen into a ditch and only God’s hand could get me out and yes, there would also be times when I went backwards.
The solution which we can draw from this story is that if we desire to walk in and stay on the narrow path that leads to life, then we need to have our focus on something all along the way.
The definition of the word focus is this: a central point of attention, attraction or activity. Therefore we need to find out what our central point of attention should be on, a final goal or prize that we should always be moving towards. We must also have within us an attraction that pulls us towards this goal. And lastly the activities of our life should also be always moving towards this central point.
Our central point of attention should be on Jesus Christ! “To the two questions", said T.W. Mann, “What is it that God has given to mankind? and, What is it that God requires in return? The New Testament returns one answer, the life of Christ.” It is somewhat obvious to say that our focus should always be on Christ. After all, we who are called Christians are to be Christ-like, and if you have not studied the life and teachings of Jesus, how can you emulate Him? We have all heard it said, “What would Jesus do?” Well, if you don’t know Jesus you will have a difficult time in ever being able to answer that question with certainty.
“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ…” ~ Philippians 3:7-10
Next there needs to be an attraction to our central point. This attraction that pulls us, sometimes inexplicably or unknowingly, is love. There is no greater power than love! It was love for God, that the boy David risked his life to battle the giant Goliath, that Abraham almost sacrificed his beloved son Isaac and that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would rather risk being burnt to death than serve or worship false gods. With love for God a man may be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause. Loving Christ is what enables the pilgrim to soldier on regardless of what comes his way or tries to take him off course.
Finally, we need for the activities of our life to be always moving to this central point. The thoughts we think, the places we go, the things we do, and what we give our attention to, should all be such that they are keeping us on the path that moves us closer to our goal. I must stress here that our thoughts are the most important of all the activities. ““Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.” ~ Soren Kierkegaard
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." ~ Colossians 3:1,2
Please note that this doesn’t mean that you are to become so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly use. God has not called us to lead a monastic, ascetic and lonely life. He desires for us to have a life of joy and to be cheerful, regardless of what happens in this world, for He has overcome the world!
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace”
APPLICATION
Try now to visualize your own path behind you. Take your time. Imagine that you have the ability to see your path in the spirit throughout your journey thus far. Have you kept a true, straight-forward course on the narrow path that leads to life? Are you spiritually where you should be now? If not, why? If you know the answer, do something about it! If you don’t know the answer, pray that the Lord will, as a loving shepherd, put his staff around your neck and pull you back where you belong.
Keep your eyes focused on the prize, Jesus Christ. When something is causing you to stray off the path, hastily remove it from your life. Let it be to you as one that may awaken in a jungle to find a snake coiled around his arm. He would do all in his power to quickly remove this dangerous threat to his well-being. And so should you use all your power to quickly remove any dangerous threat to your spiritual well-being. Too many Christians allow things in their lives in which they know are hindrances to their spiritual growth, but choose to nonchalantly say, “I’ll get to that eventually.”
Focus on the positives, not the negatives. "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” ~ Philippians 4:8
When you focus on the negatives you will be drawn off the right path.
Learn from your past, but put it behind you and march on toward the goal you are focusing on. Kierkegaad, in agreement wrote “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 3:13,14
Do what you must to keep yourself focused throughout the day. On the doorposts of every observant-Jewish home is a Mezuzah. The Mezuzah is a reminder to them about the oneness of God. They are reminded of this everytime they pass by the door. Muslims are known for stopping everything when it is time for their daily prayers. Buddhist monks will shave their heads and beard to show their commitment to a holy life. The point I am trying to make is find ways throughout your day to help keep your focus where it should be. You may, for example set aside a specific time for prayer two to three times per day. You could carry a rock in your pocket that has the words Jesus Christ on it. The list could go on, but find what works for you.
Make time for solitude in your life. Jesus very often would go to an isolated place to pray. If He needed that, how much more you and me! We often need these peaceful times alone to help us to see where our focus has been vs. where it should be. The busy-ness of life can take away your focus if you let it. There are many that become too absorbed in their work, or with wholesome activities and hobbies. They may think there is nothing wrong with them spending so much time in these areas. But we must remember that we are not to let anything or anyone come before our Lord. It is in times of solitude, prayer and meditation, that we may see more clearly the status of our journey.
“The Noise of the moment scoffs at the music of eternity” ~ Unknown
I am going to conclude this with some verses from fourth chapter in the Book of Proverbs . I would recommend you read this whole chapter also. It is absolutely great in giving us guidance regarding how we are to walk in, and stay in, the path of righteousness.
“Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve from the right or the left; keep your feet from evil.” ~ Proverbs 4:25-27
J.Lawrence Finley
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