“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.” — Hebrews 12:1
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While watching the Paris Olympics last year, I got into whitewater kayaking a bit. It’s one of those sports you likely only watch once every four years, but I found it fascinating to watch the kayakers navigate the roaring tide and try to weave their way through the course without penalties.
Some of the competitors did very well, and others not so much. Getting a clean run was, without a doubt, the ultimate goal to put you in contention for a medal. Something the commentator said really stuck with me as he was describing how this event worked. He said, “You need to spend as little time in the eddies as possible; those won’t help you get to the finish line.” An eddy is located immediately downstream of an obstacle in a river, such as a rock or a boulder. This event forms an upstream current, opposing the natural flows of the downstream current.
The metaphor was not lost on me as I realized that each of us has our own version of eddies — the distracting, irritating, confusing stuff that serves no purpose other than to pull us off track from the race we’ve been called to run. These are those pesky little things that Song of Solomon calls “the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom” (Song of Solomon 2:15).
There’s an old saying that says, “The devil is in the details,” and to a certain extent, that is true. It often seems like the things that get under our skin the easiest or take our focus from our true calling and purpose are minor things in the big picture. But we get caught up in them, slowing ourselves down from getting to the finish line. Whether it be relational, spiritual or personal, these are the tiny but not insignificant details that the enemy uses to stall our momentum for the Kingdom of God.
If we are to live an intentional life when it comes to our faith, then we need to be aware of and deal with the “eddies” that threaten to pull us off course. We can each likely name a few of these things off the top of our heads. We need to take what the Bible says to heart when it cautions us to:
– Watch where we walk: “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways” (Proverbs 4:25-26).
– Be in submission to God: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
– Think about what you think about: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).
– Get rid of the stuff that’s hindering you from being effective: “…throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” (Hebrews 12:1, above).
The eddies will get us every time. Like the commentator pointed out, they aren’t going to help us get to the end of the race. We can’t get through this life entirely penalty-free, but if we can identify and get out of the eddies when they come up, or anticipate them better next time, we can aim to maintain our momentum better and keep heading for the finish line — eternity with Him.
— Katherine Singer
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