Always eager to keep up with her older sister, this past week, Sylvie (3), has graduated from her strider bike to her own pedal bike without training wheels. It is neon orange and decked out in the craziest colors. It matches her perfectly. When we decided that she was ready to venture beyond the driveway, I sat her down for some last minute instructions.
“Be aware of what is around you,” I told her. “But most importantly, pay attention to what is ahead of you, and keep your eyes on where you want to go. If you look left, you’ll veer to the left. If you look to the right, you’ll veer to the right. Don’t look behind you, but also don’t look too far ahead. If you do, you can miss what’s right in front of you and something might catch your tire and you will fall.”
As I watched her bravely set out down the sidewalk, it struck me. I didn’t just give her a bike lesson. The Christian life is like that too.
If you keep focusing on your past, you can crumble under the regrets—the would’ves and the could’ves—the disappointments. That will get you nowhere. Likewise, if you focus too much on the uncertainty of the future, you can get tripped up, or miss what is right in front of you.
In the Scriptures, James writes that we do not know what tomorrow will bring so we shouldn’t boast in it. Instead we can boast in God who does know. Instead of looking to the past or to the future, we can keep our eyes set on God and his promises.
In the Book of Proverbs, we are told:
Keep looking straight ahead,
without turning aside.
Know where you are headed,
and you will stay
on solid ground.
Don’t make a mistake by turning
to the right or the left.
We were told to keep our eyes fixed ahead of us because where your eyes look, that is where you will go. It wasn’t until a millennia later that we discover on what, or rather on who our gaze should be fixed. The writer to the Hebrews exhorts you and me, “Keep looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Keep your eyes on Jesus, because where your eyes look, that is where you will go.
Jesus is described as the perfecter of our faith. In the Greek text, that noun is accusative and singular. He, singularly is the perfecter of your faith, all you have to do is keep your eyes on him, and keep walking.
Day by day, step by step, where your eyes look, that is where you will go.
Peter+
