“Get your eyes on Me.” That’s what He said to me within the first couple of hours on our bus ride from Tacloban back to Manila. The bus ride in total was about 28 hours, including a ferry from one island to another, which took 2-3 hours. I was so heartbroken and encouraged at the same time. Heartbroken because how could I take my eyes off of Jesus, even for a second? Encouraged because He cares enough to remind me. He wasn’t upset with me, but He wasn’t going to let me continue to focus on anything but Him. (A side note, I’ve often prayed that He would always remind me to keep my mind on Him. I highly recommend this prayer!) Although He was correcting me, to hear His voice was so wonderful. What an awesome Father!
Honestly, I don’t even remember what I was pondering when He said it. I wasn’t focused on Jesus, though, or He wouldn’t have needed to address my lack of focus. When He said those words to me, I can’t describe the way it affected me. I cried. I was awfully choked up. I did my best to keep my composure. I almost lost it. I didn’t want to bawl on the bus and have someone think something was wrong with me. I just kept casually wiping away the tears rolling down my cheeks. I knew that if I had to explain what was going on to someone, I would not have been able to. I would’ve been all the more overwhelmed. I was undone. So I kept it all in, but that did not lessen what He taught me in that moment, and it did not diminish the impact of His words. Not to mention, we still had about 25 or so hours on that trip, so that phrase kept coming to my mind, over and over; and every time I would tear up. He was planting this truth deep inside of me: the best thing for me is to live my entire life, every moment, with my eyes glued to who He is. He was serious. He was stern in tone when He said it. Lovingly affectionate and understanding, but stern. Isn’t God amazing? One of my favorite verses of Scripture says this: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). If you fix something to something else, then it doesn’t move from there. It’s fixed. For good. Unless you remove it for some reason. There’s really no reason to ever take my eyes off of Jesus. He’s so beautiful, too! Why look at anything else?
This isn’t the first time he spoke this identical exhortation over me. I was sitting in church a few weeks before launch. At that time, I was handling all the final things I needed to take care of before the Race. I was also dealing with a lot of confusion. I was asking myself, how is all of this going to work out? The gravity of the upcoming journey was becoming all too real. I’ve always performed better under pressure, but I had never been exposed to this kind of pressure, this much confusion, this much lack of understanding and uncertainty of what the next year would hold for me. I felt helpless. I felt like I wanted to give up. I didn’t even consider myself worthy of the opportunity to go because of my unbelief! But then He called my name. “Reece, you’ve gotta get your eyes on Me, son.”
Woah! Incredible. What a loving Dad. I realized it immediately. He was right. I had taken my eyes off of Him. Worse than that, I had moved my focus to myself. I was concerned about my own ability to make all of these things work and make sure everything was ok. I wasn’t trusting in Him for my sufficiency. I was thinking I had to make it all happen myself, and I knew that I couldn’t.
I was undone. Crying is an understatement. I was more than convicted. I was so determined to never do that ever again. I promised Him so. I promised myself, too! Yet about six months later, it happened again. What a patient and compassionate Father. He is so gentle and wise. Indescribable, really. I was perplexed on the bus that I was still capable of losing focus on the One who is most beautiful and glorious and worthy of my attention and all my affections, especially after He had so clearly spoken to me about this, but He wasn’t shocked. He was just concerned. He loves me so much and so well. Praise Him!
My blogs recently have all been about perspective, really. I love this saying I’ve heard a favorite speaker of mine say. If God can change my perspective, then He’s already changed my life.
Wow, think about that! The Bible commands us to have “the same mind which was in Christ Jesus,” and to “set [our] minds on things above,” to think on things that are good and to be “renewed in the spirit of [our] minds,” and “transformed by the renewing of [our] minds.” If Jesus can change our minds, then He’s changed everything. It’s about perspective.
Consider these verses from Matthew 6: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, then your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” This is obviously referring to your focus. Your eye is the lamp of your body, it lights you up inside. So if you look at light itself, Jesus, then you’ll be full of light! If you focus on darkness (what isn’t light is actually darkness), then your lamp will only produce darkness inside of you. What a revelation.
I encourage you to pray about your perspective. Ask Holy Spirit if this idea is valid and, if it is, make sure your life is one of committing your focus and attention devoutly to Jesus and His truth. Scripture is necessary for this, by the way. Don’t let a day go by without knowing Jesus a little bit more, without gaining a little more understanding of the truth in His word. Always be growing. Always be about your Father’s business, like little twelve-year-old Jesus.
I apologize again for the lack of consistently in my blogging. I want to keep you updated on what God is doing and what He’s revealing to me (literally SO much), so please pray for me, that I’ll be reminded to write more often and share those things that He wants me to, and those things that can be of encouragement and joy for you all. Thank you for supporting me in prayer and keeping up with my journey. I love you guys.
With love and faith in Christ,
Reece
