This needs to start with a warning ⛔️ Don’t try this at home!
Apparently if you drop a frog in boiling water it will leap out. If you put it in tepid water and slowly raise the temperature it will not realise the danger until it’s too late. [Expecting lots of angry emails from frog lovers now🙈]
It is a cautionary tale told sometimes to make a point. We can get used to something that is not healthy and not realise until it’s too late to do anything to save ourselves from harm. That’s certainly true in the spiritual life. It is easy to get absorbed with other things – even quite harmless things in themselves – and find that we have drifted away from Jesus. Somebody has distracted us and we suddenly realise that that the enemy is trying to boil us alive.
When we look around we can see lots of things happening in the natural realm that are concerning to us. If we are not careful we could easily become anxious or fearful. That is a pressure. On top of that we have all been isolated from our Christian family and from our own families and friends to a greater or lesser degree. That is another pressure.
For me, I have been cut off from seeing quite a lot of people who I would normally have seen through the week and there have been odd moments when it felt as if life has become a bit meaningless. I have been using some of my time to learn as much as possible about immunology and virology, reading lots, looking at graphs, databases and statistical websites. On the positive side I have learned so much about how amazingly we are made, our incredible cell structure, our amazing immune system on all its different levels and how well it responds to whatever is thrown at it, including Covid19. Whilst I have learnt a great deal I have also found myself getting frustrated at the political shenanigans and the injustices that are taking place. I am not saying that we shouldn’t be aware, or even willing to stand up and speak out, but for me a little too much of my time has gone in this direction. I have allowed an imbalance. Someone has been boiling me!
There’s a song that goes like this, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of the earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His love and His grace”.
As we focus on Jesus He becomes the centre of our vision, and the other stuff recedes into its proper place. The opposite is true. If we give too much attention to other stuff then that takes the centre of our field of vision and Jesus recedes into the background.
Hebrews 12 says we should fix our eyes on Jesus, and Colossians 3 says to set our hearts on things above. Fix and Set. Pretty permanent words!
I needed to do something about this. I knelt down, on my face before Him and said simply “I submit. You can have it all. I am here for You”
That’s all really. Time to re-calibrate. Time to set things back in their proper order, and things are in their proper order when Jesus is front and centre.
There are things to be legitimately concerned about (but never anxious), and there are things to be done; but the first thing always for us has to be that Jesus is at the centre.
Note: for those of you that are interested, I have just published my latest article looking at what Church is meant to be like on this website. You can find it here, just click on the link: Apostles and Spiritual Authority
Church is out there 