Careless

A number of years ago a young Frenchman captured the attention of the world by walking a tightrope between the towers of New York’s World Trade Center, 1,350 feet above the streets below.

A few months later, however, while practicing on a relatively low wire in St. Petersburg, Florida, he fell 30 feet and was injured.

As he laid waiting for help, he reportedly beat his fist on the ground saying, “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it! I never fall!”

Most likely he fell because he became careless and didn’t concentrate the way he should have.

He was working at a low level where the risk didn’t seem very great.

There is a lesson for us here, just as he became careless in his tightrope walking, so we can be careless in our walk with Christ.

Hebrews 2:1 says this:

“So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.”

If we neglect our attachment to the truth of God’s Word that does not change, the currents of the age might carry us away from it.

If we are not concentrating on the truth of God’s Word on a daily basis we can begin to drift.

Drifting is gradually losing sight of God’s wisdom from His Word, which suggests a gradual departure rather than an abrupt one.

The world is always pulling on us as believers with its view of life and we can, if we are not careful, unconsciously go along with its false hopes.

Satan likes nothing better than a careless believer who drifts!

We all know, too, that the tendency of our flesh is to drift along with earthly things away from the truth of God’s Word.

If we as believers neglect our anchor, Christ, we can begin to quietly drift away.

There may not be a dramatic sense of our departure, but when the winds of trouble come our way or temptations, then we see how far we drifted from Christ.

How can we keep from drifting?

In Joshua 1:7-8 God told Joshua before he led Israel into the Land to conquer it:

“that you may do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.”

David said this in Psalm 1:2-3:

“But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.”

Have you ever floated down a lazy river, drifting along with the current?

Sometimes our lives can be like that.

We go with the flow, choosing comfort over commitment to Christ and His Word. It can be easier to take the path of least resistance, to just let life happen to us, rather than making the hard or bold choices to trust Christ and His Word.

May we not be careless in our walk with Christ and drift away.

Blessings!

Pastor Ken Keeler, Director of Church Ministries