We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
Hebrews 2:1[1]
Some of us are blessed with the gift or talent of focus. There are people in this world who can keep thinking about the one thing they’re supposed to when everyone and everything’s trying to get their attention. To get them to pay attention to something else.
These focused people either are wired that way from birth, or they’ve worked on this skill. I’ve known people that just can focus without even thinking about it. They can seem to just shut out everything except what they’re working on. My dear wife Mary Ann is like this. She can sew by hand while the TVs on. I could no more do this than to jump over the Grand Canyon.
And then there’s mental workouts that can greatly improve the ability to focus. These tips and exercises can help people develop greater abilities to concentrate. There are also supplements that claim to help with concentration – but I’m personally skeptical.
I greatly admire people who can concentrate because I’m not one of them. Not in the least. Never have been and never will be. I’m like a gnat with the attention span of 0.210005 of a second[2] in comparison to that famous goldfish that has an attention span of eight seconds[3]. My brain is all over the place. I make a darting and nervous squirl look positively focused in comparison to me. Even when I have something right in front of me, and I put my hands beside my eyes like blinders on a horse, my brain is going a mile a minute in all sorts of directions. In the words of a dear friend of mine, my brain is a train wreck.
So, when the Hebrews are told to pay attention, it get’s my attention. They’re instructed to not just give some attention, but to continually pay the most careful attention. To give all the attention that they have. They’re to put something right in front of themselves and to only think about it. They’re to focus their total attention on and to think on what’s most important.
Actually, that’s not exactly correct. They’re not told to think and focus on something, but on someone. It’s not about what they do but what someone has done for them. It’s not their performance, following rules but on Jesus and what he’s already done for them.
He’s the key to not drifting away. He’s the anchor that can hold them steady as they go through the storms of this life. He’s the rock that they can stand on.. He’s the foundation that they can build their lives on. If they don’t, the warning is that they’ll just drift away.
Think about drifting like this: you’re trying to park your car on a hill and you don’t have any breaks. Try as you might, you’ll just drift past the parking spot. Or you’ll start to put your car into the parking spot, but you’ll crash into the car next to you. Gravity is just too strong. You can’t fight it. You’ll slip by because you don’t have the power to stop.
When we drift with the tide, we’ve pulled up the anchor and let go of the dock. The moving water will push us around. Without holding onto something stable, we have no choice but to be pushed around. When we let the tide move us, we’ve disconnected and let go of anything that could keep us still.
There’s a very powerful and sharp contrast in these words. Holding onto and paying attention vs. letting go and slipping away. We can’t do both. It’s one or the other. We can’t let go while holding on.
So, why the warning about drifting away? Because the results are that awful. The Hebrews are being warned that their failure to hear is due to their carelessness in paying attention to what God had to say. And behind their carelessness is the desire to do whatever they want. To only listen to themselves. To do their own will.
And just in case you were wondering, the exact same thing is true for us. The key is less about what we’ve heard and more about who we’ve heard about. Are we listening to the Son? This one and only Son who’s better than the angels and prophets. Because the Son is so much better, he’s the one we need to pay attention to. The one we need to focus on. The only one we need to follow after.
In order to say focused and anchored in this life, we need to anchor our lives on the Son. Jesus is the absolutely one and only Son of God who came to save us from ourselves. Turning away from the God who made us and loves us just so we can do our own thing. And in case this sounds like we want to be God, you’re exactly right.
We were made to be loved by and cared for by our loving creator and heavenly Father. Anything that takes us away from this is rebellion against the King of the universe. Is it any wonder that the well-earned payment for our purposeful rebellion is total separation from the one we’ve turned away from? And God is so against this that he sent his one and only Son to bring us back to himself.
Noodling Questions
How do you feel about people that can focus on things a lot better than you?
Do you like to drift when you drive? Or drift in your life? Explain.
List three ways that God’s never moving changes your life.
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Bible references are from the New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[3] Microsoft Corporation
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