Chara, our English Springer, loves going to visit the residents of a nearby memory care facility. As she got out today, she was prancing with joy and bounding down the hallway to meet up with her people. Her people are sitting around in a circle in the TV room and she can’t wait to greet each one with love. All the while, she’s looking at Ben and I, eager to please, hoping a treat will come her way.
Chara doesn’t always aim to please her master perfectly. Although my husband often says “She’s the perfect dog…” there’s a lot of room for improvement. Like last week, when he took her for a walk, and she rolled in a dead armadillo. Yikes. She came back smelling like one.
For Chara, her people are her priority. That is, for the most part, what she fixes her focus on. I sense we can learn some eternal lessons from a dog.
Do we keep our eager eyes focused on God, always desiring to please Him? Will we be faithful to Him, even to the end? Will we remain attuned to God’s presence or be drawn down paths that leave their stench?
Summer is almost here. Even with a “slowing” down in our lives, there are always enough distractions of many good things that often lead us to forget the best thing.
The writer of Hebrews instructs us in a way of life that is possible and beautiful! Hebrews 12:1-2 says “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
What hinders you from keeping your focus on Jesus? How do you run with endurance? God has set out for each of us a race. God wants us to run our race and finish it well. Endurance
Is needed here. In Enduring Word Online Commentary, the writer speaks about endurance: “Endurance translates the ancient Greek word ‘hupomone”, which does not mean the patience which sits down and accepts things but the patience which masters them… it is a determination, unhurrying, and yet undelaying which goes steadily on and refuses to be deflected.”
I want that kind of tenacity and persistence. The secret of persistence is in the words “Fixing our eyes on Jesus.” He is the pioneer. He has gone before us. He empowers us moment by moment to learn to look to Him.
I want to fix my gaze continuously on the One who knows my name and loves me perfectly. Fixing our eyes on Jesus means we have our eyes locked on Him, not on the armadillos that stink things up.
For Chara, her people are her priority. That is, for the most part, what she fixes her focus on. I sense we can learn some eternal lessons from a dog.
Do we keep our eager eyes focused on God, always desiring to please Him? Will we be faithful to Him, even to the end? Will we remain attuned to God’s presence or be drawn down paths that leave their stench?
Summer is almost here. Even with a “slowing” down in our lives, there are always enough distractions of many good things that often lead us to forget the best thing.
The writer of Hebrews instructs us in a way of life that is possible and beautiful! Hebrews 12:1-2 says “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
What hinders you from keeping your focus on Jesus? How do you run with endurance? God has set out for each of us a race. God wants us to run our race and finish it well. Endurance
Is needed here. In Enduring Word Online Commentary, the writer speaks about endurance: “Endurance translates the ancient Greek word ‘hupomone”, which does not mean the patience which sits down and accepts things but the patience which masters them… it is a determination, unhurrying, and yet undelaying which goes steadily on and refuses to be deflected.”
I want that kind of tenacity and persistence. The secret of persistence is in the words “Fixing our eyes on Jesus.” He is the pioneer. He has gone before us. He empowers us moment by moment to learn to look to Him.
I want to fix my gaze continuously on the One who knows my name and loves me perfectly. Fixing our eyes on Jesus means we have our eyes locked on Him, not on the armadillos that stink things up.
May this be our prayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hzVffdluFw
Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.
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