Fixing our Eyes

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, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.                                     Heb. 12:1-2 NIV

I’ve been thinking lately about the phrase “fixing our eyes.” First, using the analogy that the writer of Hebrews uses, the idea of running a race and fixing our eyes on a person or object up ahead of us, I know what it’s like to run with an end point in mind. I’m not a great runner, but when I was training for a race, I remember finding a pole or other landmark far ahead, and telling myself that I was running to that point. If I made it and wasn’t hyperventilating, I would keep running and choose another point ahead of that one that I would run toward, and so on. I remember being so proud of myself when the starting line and the finishing line got 5kms apart. “Did I really just do that?!”

I also thought about other times when a person fixes their eyes on something/ someone: a groom, watching his radiant bride stroll gracefully toward him; a football player, running the football to the goal post; a baby, taking her wobbly first steps toward her daddy’s waiting hands; a soldier, in the heat of battle, running amidst gunfire and smoke toward safety; a family, watching the exit doors, eagerly awaiting the arrival of a loved one. In each case where a person is fixing his eyes, it’s with focused anticipation and full concentration, a determination to arrive to or receive what is anticipated.

It says in I John 3 that when we see Jesus, we’ll finally be like Him. FINALLY! The growing pains of sanctification will once and for all be over, because we’ll be with Jesus, glorified, restored, purified, wrapped up in His loving embrace. Until that day, we’ve got things that “hinder” us. Oh BOY, do we have hindrances on this life-run with Jesus! It is so easy to get entangled in those hindrances and we forget what we’re running towards. I sent a text to a few friends today, asking them to pray for me, that I would fix my eyes on Jesus. I’m getting so distracted from what’s really important (which is running toward the “pioneer and perfecter” of my faith) and not fixing, straining my eyes in wonderful anticipation of the prize, which is being with JESUS.

That just made me think about the time when Jesus was in Mary and Martha’s home. You know the story. Martha was rushing around, washing bowls, frying onions, chopping up the fatted sheep, sweeping the dining area, and was inwardly grumbling about her doe-eyed sister, sitting on her, ahem, lazy butt. (I have sisters, too, okay?) What did Jesus say to Martha in response to her outburst, whining that He make Mary get up and help her?  

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Even though I’m a Martha-type person, that is so incredibly encouraging to me, rather than discouraging. People and circumstances can take things away from you that you deem important. They can rob you of your joy, your peace, even your livelihood. But NO ONE can take away your passionate relationship with the Lord Jesus. Mary sat with her eyes completely fixed on Jesus, and didn’t even hear Martha’s under-her-breath complaints and banging of bowls and spoons. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about Martha and the preparations of a meal for 13+ hungry men, she loved Jesus so much that the other things just left her focus. They didn’t even come close to robbing her of the joy of sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to all He had to teach and the love He bestowed on her (I LOVE the word bestowed- can we please use it in modern-day English?).

I want to fix my eyes on Jesus like the writer of Hebrews was inspired to write, and as Mary did in Luke 10. Then, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” (Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, by Helen Lemmel) I want to get to the point where nothing else matters, but running the race with my eyes on my Master. I may stumble, and grumble, and scrape a knee or an elbow, but ultimately, I am running this race to win the prize. And He is so worth it.