We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. (Hebrews 2:1, NIV)
It was one of those passing conversations on golf radio, so these few years later I cannot be sure who said it. But I’ve never forgotten the importance of the story.
A long-time Tour pro was speaking of the way he approached the game when on the road in competition. He did not like to attend to details of his swing while he was competing. He just showed up each day, found his flow on the range, and went to work. Nothing overly technical.
God wants so much more for us than to be in the fingertip clutches of his grace.When he returned home, though, he’d get to his teacher and make sure everything checked out as it should. Now here’s the fascinating thing. He went on to say that he was constantly surprised at how far his alignment and set-up had shifted in those three or four weeks of competing. He always needed a reset.
I am reminded of this story when I come to Hebrews 2 and begin the chapter. The writer’s warning is that we must pay careful attention to what we have heard, and his reason is so we do not drift.
We won’t dive into the debate of whether this has anything to do with losing one’s salvation. That’s a bigger question for a longer space. What we will recognize is that even without losing our way, we can move away from the center of our faith if we are not attending to our course. We may say we still believe in Jesus, though we are not intent on “fixing our eyes” on him, as the writer charged his readers 10 chapters later.
In golf, there is a way of approaching shotmaking that goes something like this: To avoid a big miss, pick a small target. We may not remember this well when we are looking at a “wide open” fairway on a short, easy hole. But when we focus on the edges of acceptable, that is often where we hit it. There and beyond, into trouble. If instead we aim at a tree in the distance, creating a line that effectively splits the fairway right down the middle, our misses aren’t so bad. They usually find the short grass.
It’s human nature—also known as lazy sin—to look at the minimum standard. We’re tired, busy, distracted, uninterested. Whatever it is, we ask in our hearts how little we can do and still be “in God’s graces.”
God wants so much more for us than to be in the fingertip clutches of his grace. We desperately need that grace, don’t get me wrong! But we do poorly to allow ourselves to drift to the borderlands, when what’s at the center is glorious and abundant. The fullness of God’s grace supplies blessing after blessing (John 1:16). How silly we are to settle for only a blessing now and then. How silly and how weakened. Instead, let us be attentive, so that we may be undrifting. Let us be held in the palm of his hand.
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Jeff Hopper
December 19, 2017
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.