I learned to snow ski at Wintergreen Resort when I was 14. One of my friend's father taught me. I remember him saying to me at the top of the mountain, "Keep your eyes on me, and do what I am doing." In a matter of minutes, I was skiing. I slowly followed him all the way down the slope.
That experience has become a life metaphor for me. I am still on a mountain, but now it's with Jesus. And He too is speaking, "Keep your eyes on me, and do what I am doing."
Keeping our eyes fixed on something does not prevent us from knowing the peripheral activities that surround us. But it prevents us from becoming seduced by them. Fixation on the edges of life and faithfulness in Christ will lead us off the mountain rather than down it.
Right about now you are guessing that I'm going to start naming the edges for you, thus, revealing my bias and convictions. Sorry to disappoint you. But if I were to do that, the focus of this reflection would be on the peripheral rather than the center - the very thing I'm trying to discourage.
So with Jesus in the center, what does it mean to keep our eyes on Him? It means that...
- Jesus is the Gospel - the Good News. The Gospel is a person not a thing or an idea or a mission. All faithful activity by His Followers, which should happen consistently, flows from Jesus but is not a replacement or facsimile of Jesus. We are not "Jesus" to people in our mobilization efforts. We are commissioned to introduce people to Jesus, make disciples, and baptize them.
- Jesus should be at the center of everything in our lives not compartmentalized to a weekly gathering. He should be at the center of our families, thoughts, politics, businesses, decisions, sermons, ideas, outreaches, churches, generosity, and conversations.
- Jesus accomplishes the Father's plans in the midst of any earthly governmental structure. Some contexts are more challenging than others but none can prevent Kingdom expansion. God is so much bigger.
- The Roman occupancy did not thwart the first Coming of Jesus
- House churches and personal revival flourish in Communist regimes
- Prisons were the setting for the Spirit to inspire many New Testament writings
- Capitalistic and free enterprise economies produce a prolific increase in the sending out of missionaries and giving of substantial resources that fund Kingdom activity
- There are both radical followers of Jesus and atheists in Democracy and Socialism.
- Faithful Christians in our public schools cannot proselytize, but they can influence people towards Jesus through their relationships, actions, work ethic, and off-line conversations.
- And finally, Jesus' teachings and beliefs are necessary for spiritual maturity - all of them not just the easy ones. Don't misinterpret what I mean by this. We need to discern the right timing for people to be challenged. It's fun to say, "Jesus loves you." It's difficult to say, "Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Him." But what kind of discipling are we doing if we always say the former but not the latter?
