Getting our focus right

Some Christians spend all their time worrying about falling back into sin. They don’t move on and up to higher ground. They don’t grow. If you focus all your energy on trying not to fail instead of training to win, you will remain a baby in the faith.

Carl Wallenda was perhaps the most famous aerialist who ever lived. He was one of the “Flying Wallendas”—a family, high-wire act whose feats thrilled audiences worldwide. He wrote, “For me, to live is being on a tight rope. All the rest is waiting.” He said in 1968 that the key to tight rope walking was confidence. There was no room to think about failing. But in 1978, Carl Wallenda fell to his death from a high wire strung 75 feet in the air in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His wife said that three months prior to this most dangerous attempt, Carl talked frequently about falling. He checked the installation of the wire. He calculated the wind. He checked the guy wires that kept everything in place. “I believe Carl fell,” she said, “because he spent so much time preparing not to fall, instead of preparing to walk the rope.”

 Do you spend all your time saying, “Boy, I don’t want to fall. I’m a Christian now, so I want to live a clean life?” If you do, you are setting yourself up for failure. Don’t focus on maintenance. Go for growth. Spend time in God’s Word. Seek to understand and apply the truth that you discover. Think about going on to higher ground—not merely protecting the ground you’ve already covered. In other words, grow up!