Rev. Steve Foss
As a child learning to walk, my parents would often instruct me to be on the lookout for some toy or other trip hazard. Then, as I grew taller, they warned me to watch out for edges of tables. (How many knots on my head I must have earned!) When I reached the age of five, my father ran beside me on my bicycle to keep me steady as I learned the dynamics of balance. I was always looking all over the place, and in his loudest voice, he would say, “Keep your eyes on the road ahead of you!”
What we attend to matters in so many areas:
• In elementary school, we were taught to keep our focus in the middle of the magnifying glass to see the details on the butterfly’s wings.
• In middle school, we were taught to keep our eye in the viewfinder of the telescope to watch the wriggling cellular life within the slides.
• In high school sports, I’ll bet every coach said the phrase, “Keep your eye(s) on the ball!”
• In my driving class, my instructor told me to keep my eyes on the road. I thought I was reliving the moments of learning to ride a bike!
Of course, as an adult, I now know that all those lessons taught the importance of knowing what holds one’s attention. One of the first commands a soldier learns in basic training is “Attention!” It is essential in the sequential process of obedience to one’s superior officers.
Jesus taught the importance of one’s focus or attention, saying, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light …” (Matthew 6:22, ESV). In other words, to have a healthy perspective of life, our “view-finder” must be intentional. The psalmist phrased it in a prayer this way: “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless” (Psalm 101:3, ESV).
Psalm 119:37 reveals that it is also formational: “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.” What do your eyes attend to? It could be the most important decision of your life. Just this week, a woman was killed on Riggs Road because her attention was obviously on something else. She was not keeping her eyes on the road.
It holds true in spiritual matters, too: “To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified …” (Acts 26:18, ESV). Open our eyes, Lord; we want to see Jesus.